<p>I doubt that the custodian lady had a tool to cut a laptop lock.</p>
<p>A college dorm, library, and other places on campus are ‘target rich’ environments for thieves. A laptop lock, like a bicycle lock, is a deterrent. It won’t stop a determined thief but a thief will most likely pass up the locked laptop for one of the other several hundred that aren’t locked up.</p>
<p>A laptop lock is quick and easy to use and is low cost to buy. One normally would secure it to a solid difficult to move object like a part of a desk, the bed frame, etc.</p>
<p>I still wouldn’t leave a laptop just sitting there unattended in a library even if using a laptop lock, partly because one can mess with your laptop in other ways including maliciously, but they’re useful items that are easy to use.</p>
<p>To momofwildchild. Since my son cant afford to buy another laptop anything soon, I am usually more concern of his school bag. Do you have any idea how to keep it safe apart from dragging it everywhere including bathroom?</p>
<p>Well, my daughter spent 4 years at Rice and didn’t shower with her laptop and it wasn’t stolen. My son did have his laptop stolen from his off-campus room at Penn, however. This sort of thing happens everywhere, unfortunately. Your son is going to have to figure it out himself at this point.</p>
<p>Do you think a laptop lock will be useful in a locked lab? I think it is probably more useful in a common area as other people might see the thief messing with it.</p>
<p>Everybody I went to school with just took their stuff with them everywhere they went if it wasn’t locked in a dorm room. Even the bathroom. You wouldn’t just leave your wallet sitting on a table at a restaurant while you left to use the restroom, it’s more or less the same concept… valuable things do not belong unattended in public.</p>
<p>We women folk take our purses, messenger bags, backpacks, everywhere. Taking a back pack to the bathroom isn’t that big a deal. </p>
<p>He doesn’t have to take everything everywhere from his dorm room. </p>
<p>He’s not five.</p>
<p>To Emaheevul07. Yes, my son has been carrying his wallet and phone with him everywhere he went. However, it is difficult to drag a heavy school bag everywhere.</p>
<p>To momofWildChild. Did your daughter lock up all her stuff when she was taking a shower? Maybe a locked dorm room is safer than a locked lab.</p>
<p>To Seahorsesrock. The problem is that my son is not staying on campus. Therefore, he doesn’t have the luxury of leaving his books in a locked dorm room. He basically bring with him everything he needs for the day in his school bag including water and food.</p>
<p>No, my daughter did not lock up her stuff when she took a shower.</p>
<p>If your son is old enough to live off campus, arrange his own housing and transportation, surely he is able to resolve these questions and issues. All of our children who have attended and graduated from Rice have addressed these issues. It’s best for him to figure out these problems himself.</p>
<p>He lives off campus because he came to Rice as a transfer student and therefore, he didn’t have a choice.</p>
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<p>Dont most students do that? I’ve never lived in a dorm so I didn’t know.</p>
<p>OP, you said in your first post that your son is only 17, and he is a transfer student. So he lives in your home? I’m not highly familiar with Rice, but I thought all undergrads are assigned to a residential college whether they live on campus or not. Just wondering, has that (the residential college community) been a positive experience for your son? I would think that would be a good resource for him in learning how to deal with life at college.</p>
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It would have been in your son’s case. If he had used one in that lab he’d probably still have his laptop now. It would have taken about 10 seconds to attach.</p>
<p>To rigaudon. As a transfer student, he wasn’t assigned a spot in the dorm. Usually, this is his second year at Rice. He is currently living at home and is looking to move closer to the university if he can find somebody to share a cheap apartment. He doesn’t have a car. Currently, he has to take a ride with his father to the university at 6:45am and stays there until 10pm or 11pm. Therefore, it is quite a difficult situation. I’m not sure any of the preparation on dealing with college life would have prepared him for the shock of losing his belongings in a locked lab. He was in a much bigger university than Rice before and had been working in a locked lab for a significant period of time. Yet, he never had his laptop or wallet stolen. Maybe the lack of theft in a locked lab in his previous university has contributed to his false sense of security at Rice. He used to left all of his valuable in the locked lab and went off for hours. Nothing ever got stolen.</p>
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Are you saying its his second year at Rice and he is a transfer student from another university? That would mean he went to another university at 15. This is getting harder and harder to believe.</p>
<p>Yes, many students live off campus. Rice does not guarantee housing for all 4 years. At least 20% live off campus. My s was off campus soph year, but as others mentioned ALL students are assigned to a residential college. There is a fair amount of affordable housing near campus. Many ride bikes or the light rail.</p>
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<p>If his cellphone was in the bag and it has a tracking /GPS, you/your son can track it.</p>
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<p>Same here. If I was in a class, I’d leave my stuff because who’s going to steal someone else’s stuff in the middle of a lecture when it’s that obvious, but if I was in the library or something like that I would take my backpack into the bathroom with me. I will do if I’m traveling and in an airport or a coffee shop or bus station. I don’t own a car so I do end up in these situations with a heavy backpack more often than I’d like to, and generally I don’t think it’s a good idea to just leave it in a public place. As annoying as it is to take it into a bathroom, it would be worse to have to deal with losing the contents.</p>