<p>which programs should i "acquire" before entering college? (in adition to office..)</p>
<p>You might want to try some open source stuff if you haven't already. Firefox, Thunderbird, Gaim, and The Gimp are particularly useful.</p>
<p>I don't really like Gaim that much. Try Trillian for your Instant Messenger needs, it's a really awesome program and it's free also!</p>
<p>Don't forget the Antivirus, Anti-spyware, firewall programs too.</p>
<p>Delicious Library and Endnote.</p>
<p>Trillian rocks my world. iTunes makes me happy because of its easy to use interface, even though I use an mp3 player not compatible with it (Zen Micro). Some people love to have photoshop, but it's too expensive for most to obtain legally. Ad Aware and Spybot are a must.</p>
<p>Linux
matlab</p>
<p>Onenote is very nice if you like to take notes on your laptop.</p>