<p>D, who will be attending Udel this fall as a freshman honors student, is bucking to get an IPAD. We do plan to buy her a Macbook, so the IPAD would be in addition. The IPAD will be around $900.00 for the devise and the extras, and $25 per month for the service. I don't care so much about the money since she got a major scholarship, lots of grad gifts and makes really good money at her summer job. I am more concerned about equipping her with the right tools. She is a very dedicated student, an avid notetaker, and studies very hard. Does anyone have any perspective on the ideal computer and related devises set-up? Btw, she has an iphone and ipod, and wants to stay with APPLE for her laptop. Thoughts or advice?</p>
<p>Well, I’m just a high school student, but I do have the IPAD. It’s a 16 GB only wifi IPAD, which basically makes it just a giant ipod touch. If you’re getting her a macbook, I don’t see the point in getting an IPad. I would just stick to the macbook pro rather than getting the ipad on top of it, seeing as she already has an iphone and an ipod.</p>
<p>The IPad with the relatively new small keyboard attachment apparatus would be convenient and not very large to carry around to classes to take notes. I am not familiar with the Macbook Pro as far as size goes but if it is significantly larger than the IPad with the keyboard attachment then the IPad/keyboard attachment would be easier to tote around. Just FYI most professors that my D had at UD provided class notes/outlines on line for their lectures so unless your D is extremely obsessive-complulsive she probably will not have to take verbatim notes in many of her classes. Best of luck to her.</p>
<p>To have both seems redundant, not to mention expensive. And unless you get that keyboard attachment, taking notes will be difficult with the Ipad’s touchscreen. I’d skip it for now and just stick with a MacBook. Let your D spend a semester seeing what it’s like with just the laptop, and then you can revisit the iPad idea later.</p>
<p>Your daughter does NOT need an ipad. It’s just another thing she could get stolen. It certainly sounds like she wants one, and she’s trying to post a good argument about it being a ‘tool’. But in reality, I have never seen a classmate whip out their ipad for anything, simply because they serve no purpose outside of what you can do with a laptop/iphone/or itouch. Save your money and buy her a nice MacBook Pro, if she’s concerned about weight, look at the MacBook Air’s. No one needs to own apples entire collection of products to succeed in college.</p>
<p>It’s not a question, its an indulgence.</p>
<p>I don’t mind indulging her once in a while as she is a great kid and saved me a fortune by earning 2 major scholarships. Its just that neither she nor I really understood if there would be any real value educational value in an ipad. I certainly have not heard a compelling argument her that there is. Her NSO is next week, while in Del we will buy a nice MacBook (no state sales tax), and see how that goes. </p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the great input.</p>
<p>crobinpa, if your D is not wed to Apple, while at NSO, take a look at the Dell they have at the computer table in Trabant. It’s got a flip screen so that it can be used either as a small notebook or a tablet/pad.</p>