<p>I will be an incoming freshman, I am very accustomed to just texting. How necessary will a smartphone and a data plan be for upcoming fall 2014? (I'm thinking of R3public Wireless, trying not to advertise) Anyone survive college without a data plan? (I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna use a smartphone for games... not productivity.. thats what a laptop is for)</p>
<p>I went through my first three years with a normal flip phone, I finally upgraded to android about a year ago. You can definitely survive without a smartphone. But it can be convenient… like if you want to look something up on the go, check the class website when you forget the room number, a class project wants you to take a video, etc. So, it’s handy, but I wouldn’t consider it necessary. Games are fun too.</p>
<p>Just make sure to check your email if you’re not receiving it on your phone - professors will expect you to use email as a primary means of communicating with them.</p>
<p>A smartphone is a good investment, as is a data plan. It all amounts to convenience! Plus, do you know if your school has free wifi all around campus? If so, a data plan is a waste of money. If not, I’d say look into it!</p>
<p>I survived my freshman year easily without a smartphone/data plan and only upgraded because I was going abroad and they used email like texting where I went. It is definitely convenient for reasons others listed, but I wouldn’t consider it necessary to get through. If you’re low on funds I’d say don’t worry about it and keep your flip phone. most people still use texts and calls to communicate quickly anyways. Though, as was mentioned by another, do remember to check your school provided email frequently (or have it forwarded to your most frequently used email) to get contact from professors and about important information about your school. Hope this was helpful!</p>
<p>What I love most about my smart phone is the ability to know instantly when I receive an email. And in college you will be getting a lot of email for various stuff. I can also email my professor right from my smart phone and know the exact moment he/she replies. I also love using it for quick internet searches. If I want to look something up in a hurry before class, I find it easier to pull out a phone than open my laptop lol.<br>
Not having a smart phone is definitely survivable. I just like the convenience. </p>
<p>Important emails which require immediate response, Google maps if you get lost & don’t wanna be late somewhere like a meeting/interview, ability to connect to WiFi during an emergency if you don’t have signal, access to documents through cloud storage, synching of calendars/alerts/important reminders with the cloud, etc.</p>
<p>A smart phone is NOT necessary. People have lived their whole lives without smart phones and data plans. There is absolutely no reason why you have to get a smart phone. Many people survive college without a smart phone, without a data plan, even without texting (which I’m sure is mind blowing for some). Is it convenient? Sure, but you already know that. If you’re just going to use a smart phone for games, it’s a waste of money.</p>
<p>I’d rather have data than text, if I had to choose. </p>
<p>OP, think less games/social media & more in business terms (can you imagine missing a job/internship/scholarship notification which required immediate action that day?)</p>
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<p>No job/internship/scholarship notification is going to require such immediate action that you need to be notified by email instantaneously via a smart phone (a situation that requires instantaneous action via email is very much the exception rather than the rule). If it requires immediate action, they’ll call you. Any job or internship that requires such immediate action via email will tell you beforehand, and it won’t be a surprise (and you know, again, they’ll probably call you). And it will most likely be if you are actually employed, and if your smart phone is required for the job, the company will likely get you a company phone or will reimburse a portion of your phone bill. Even if it requires action that day, there’s no reason you can’t check your email daily at an actual computer, rather than needing to have a smart phone and a data plan which will tell you about it immediately. It’s a convenience, sure, but it’s not a necessity, by any means (unless, of course, your job actually requires it, but that’s a different situation). I know successful business people, professors, and heads of departments that don’t have smart phones (and the demands on their schedule are likely more important than a hypothetical email from a job/internship/scholarship).</p>
<p>If you have the money, is it useful? Of course, it is, and I would recommend it if you have can afford it. But if you don’t have the money, then you shouldn’t sacrifice other necessities for it.</p>
<p>Thanks baktrax. I do not have the money so I’ll hold off on a data plan and smartphone! Thanks everyone. Price>convenience for me. </p>
<p>OP, when you decide to get a smartphone, remember there’s more options out there than $100/month plans -Virgin Mobile/Boost/Straight Talk/etc. where bills run about $30-50/month, with unlimited data/text already included. You’d pay full price for the phone, but it doesn’t have to be the latest $700 iPhone + it’s still cheaper than contract companies in the long run.</p>
<p>I know. In my original post, I talked about republic wireless. Unli text/calls for $10 and unli everything(3g) $25</p>
<p>I had an iPod Touch and a dumb phone for my first 3 years at college. It was never a problem. My campus had wifi throughout so with the iPod Touch and the dumb phone I could do everything I could with a smart phone. When the Touch went the way of all flesh, I bought an iPhone because it made sense to just replace both devices at once.</p>
<p>I think the ability to receive emails on the go is pretty close to necessary. Many professors will assume you can act based on an email that’s sent short notice. I have had professors give me their phone number for contact instead, but that’s very rare.</p>
<p>Baktrax brings up the very legitimate point that there are “successful business people, professors, and heads of departments that don’t have smart phones,” but expectations for them are different. Most of them where already well-established when they decided they weren’t going to be connected. They were in the authority positions to make those choices. When you are a student, if there are professors in authority who expect your quick response, it’s usually better to be able to provide it.</p>
<p>It’s also often assumed between students that people are immediately reachable by email. I worked front desk in my dorm and the way we communicated about shift trades was via email. Usually, the person to pick up the shift replied in under a minute, sometimes in mere seconds. Immediate replies were also expected during graduation season, when someone emailed out about extra tickets. If you didn’t reply in the first <5 seconds, you weren’t getting the tickets.</p>
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<p>And I can also say (from personal experience) that there are many successful students, graduate students, and medical students who don’t have smart phones either. I’ve never had professors (even professors I’ve worked for) who expected an instantaneous response to emails. Sure, occasionally, there are times when it would have been nice to see an email (like an announcement that class was cancelled or something similar) immediately, but it’s certainly not necessary and it’s not a common enough occurrence to consider a smart phone necessary. I had a smart phone and still missed emails about class being cancelled–it’s not the end of the world. The difference between checking email on your phone versus checking it on a computer is a matter of a couple of hours (at most, a day, if you have classes or work all day and don’t check your email until the evening). If you’re out and about on campus all day, you can always drop by a computer lab during the day to check your email, if you’re expecting something. You may have your laptop with you, or places like the student center or library may also have computers. Also, if you live on campus, you’ll likely be dropping by your dorm between class or shortly after. Professors are not going to email out things that absolutely need to be responded to within the hour on such an regular basis that every student has to have a smart phone to keep up–unless all of your professors are very unreasonable.</p>
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<p>I don’t know any students who expected others to be reachable instantaneously via email (texting, yes, but not email), but perhaps, you had a very different experience than I did. Even so, these are all very specific situations that will not apply to everyone (they would not have applied at my school) and you can work around or avoid. Even if you do have a smart phone, it doesn’t mean you’re always available to respond immediately to anything. Often, it’s somewhat luck of the draw regardless, if you happened to be on your phone at the time to respond quickly. If you happen to work a job where students trade shifts via email, then be more hyper aware of your email during periods when you know you want to pick up a shift (you can still check your email throughout the day, even without a smart phone). Send out an email saying your open to pick up other students shifts or talk to your boss about getting more hours (perhaps, you could work the shifts that no one else wants–this happened a lot at a couple of my jobs as a student). Or make friends with the other students so they’ll shoot you a text when they’re looking to trade a shift. If it’s graduation season and you need extra tickets during graduation, keep a closer eye on your email or facebook. Send out messages that you’re buying tickets so that other students will contact you, and ask your friends for extra tickets. But again, this wasn’t something that happened at my school so it wasn’t an issue, but perhaps, it may be at your school. I know students who were able to buy and sell concert tickets at my school that were often snatched up quickly without a smart phone. If you don’t get to your email in time to get extra shifts or to get extra graduation tickets, it’s unfortunate, but it’s certainly not the end of the world. There are always other ways, if you work at it. These are both very specific situations though that might only happen during specific times of the year. That’s not what I would consider enough to call a smart phone necessary.</p>
<p>^… So we had different experiences. Okay.</p>
<p>As someone who has never had a smartphone, it’s not necessary at all. Heck, my phone is a prepaid phone (can still take pictures and such though) that I’ve had since high school and I haven’t had any problems. You will have to check your email often when you’re at a computer to keep up with things, but that’s not a huge deal.</p>
<p>I started college in 2009 (just before the whole smart phone craze). I didn’t have an iPhone until my junior year. If you are used to not having a smart phone, you will be just fine in college without one if you don’t want to pay the extra money for a data plan. Granted, once you do have one you realize how convenient it is for reading/sending emails, but you really don’t need one for college. </p>
<p>We got S1 a smartphone for graduation. His college uses some apps for paying for things and registrations and things like that. Until then, none of us had one. There are things that we like about the convenience, but the price is still much higher than it really needs to be…but it is what the market will bear.</p>