<p>Beavernet definitely doesn’t get into all of the rooms well in Lloyd. Maybe it’s usable, but spotty at best.</p>
<p>Question!!! Important one since I’ll be purchasing a laptop soon!!!</p>
<p>Is it necessary to buy a laptop with long battery life or are outlets ubiquitous on campus so that I can just plug in my laptop in class?</p>
<p>Would a standard 2 hour battery be enough for daily use at Tech? Do you have laptop recommendations besides Mac? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance and reply quickly because I’ll go shopping this weekend, and I intend to buy a laptop.</p>
<p>I believe that last year some people in my house got ethernet cables from the IMSS rep, but I don’t know if this is standard or if that particular IMSS rep just happened to have a lot of cables. </p>
<p>Outlets are not ubiquitous, except in Moore (EE building). You could probably get away with two hours if it actually means two hours, but if it were me, I’d get as long a battery life as possible.</p>
<p>Considering all of my time is spent in Lloyd, Steele, or Moore, I have plenty of outlet access. Just pick a laptop you like and don’t worry about the rest, it will be fine.</p>
<p>Should the OP order from Caltech or use the student discount?</p>
<p>I think I can find a better deal from Newegg.com or Costco.</p>
<p>The best deal for me way back when was ordering through Dell directly, but using the university discount. This was three years ago though, so…</p>
<p>Unless you are bringing a car, I suggest a bike. Saves money and the environment =)</p>
<p>I was really dissapointed with the Caltech discount. Fry’s and Newegg were much cheaper, and with a better return policy (retail also has the advantage of letting you inspect the computer first–especially good for making sure it doesn’t overheat)</p>
<p>I wanna point out that as far as books go:
A) If you used the Serway physics book, you might want to bring it as Practical Physics (core) uses a book by the same author (maybe not necessarily the same book you have, but I doubt the books would be entirely dissimilar).
- Side note: I took analytical physics so while the books were completely different, Serway definitely helps.
B) For math, I actually am starting to put some faith into the (shall we say legendary?) Apostol books that we use. I still get stuck and confused reading it, but then again; don’t doubt the power of wikipedia! - Summary: as far as bringing books for frosh year, it doesn’t seem to fortuitous or beneficial to you. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever bring some books over, they could always help in later years (which I haven’t gone through yet :-P)</p>
<p>As far as books go, I suggest bringing a couple of books to read as I guarantee there are times where you’ve either gotten sick of doing work for the day, you’re bored of playing the game you overplayed the whole week, or whatever. Some of the houses here have libraries so don’t feel like you NEED to bring books, but it’s your choice.</p>
<p>Laptop, mine is somewhat portable, with a 4 hour battery and a 2 hour battery (the 2 hour came with the laptop, the 4 hour I got on eBay for like 5 bucks!) I truly don’t think you’ll have to take your laptop with you and keep it on for 4 straight hours on any given day in class (as a frosh). My longest block of classes was three hours long and that included a PE at the end of this block. Maybe I was lucky, but that’s just me. As far as wi-fi goes, I’m in Ruddock House and I swear my room is where wi-fi goes to die (except for the northwest corner above the loft - it works amazingly). But I agree with previous posters, ethernet cables are the way to go… it’s just fast. My room came with 4, but I gave the extras to my house’s IMSS Rep. If you’re going to buy your ethernet cable ahead of time, try to get a 15+ foot one (sometimes those jacks are placed in really awkward places in the room).</p>
<p>Other electronics:
- mini fridge, you’re going to want this. I’m right by my alley kitchen which has 3 reasonably big fridges and they’re always packed… it’s a blue moon if I can ever squeeze more than a few food items in there at a time. On the plus side, you can buy soda in bulk using your dbal (you’re sure to have extra at the end of each time) through the CStore.
- printer, I personally didn’t have a need for this as Ruddock has 3 separate printers I can print to. Granted, there are downtimes, paper jams, etc… If I really was desperate to print, I can stick it on my jump drive, walk to the Fairchild library or something, and print from there.</p>
<p>Duct Tape? Bring it! And perhaps a lot of Gorilla Tape too :-D</p>
<p>^ i agree on the mini fridge,
as much as we believe in the honor code here,
some butthead keeps stealing my food from the alley fridge</p>
<p>oh, and hi :D</p>
<p>What about an AC? Do most rooms have one that someone left behind, or should it go on the to-do list?</p>
<p>The south houses have central AC, the north houses don’t but they do have some rooms with ACs in them (not most, though). You also won’t need AC except during the summer anyway…</p>
<p>Don’t buy one until you get here and decide you need one.</p>
<p>The best place to get an air conditioner is to buy one off of a graduating senior at the end of the year. As lizzardfire said, you don’t really need one during the year anyways.</p>
<p>You would also need to make sure that your air conditioner fits into our windows, so under no circumstances should you buy one before you come.</p>