<p>What kind of laptop is your freshman bringing to campus? Is he/she bringing a printer?</p>
<p>depends on your needs
im going to major in computer science/math so my laptop is a bit overkill for other students</p>
<p>you should look for something thats not too heavy and good battery life </p>
<p>im bringing a printer for my dorm room but im not sure if its really necessary</p>
<p>So if our son has a Dell or an Apple, he can get it repaired at the Do-It Center? Is that correct? (God forbid it should break!)</p>
<p>if it broke physically you would want to use any warranty you have on it</p>
<p>I beliee DoIt is an authorized repair location for Dell and Apple.</p>
<p>My son had his Toshiba repaired (no warranty) by DoIT which was cheaper than what BestBuy would have charged.</p>
<p>I think it is important to bring your own printer to campus (and replacement cartridges and paper).</p>
<p>Mom of soon-to-be freshman son here – he is getting mac book pro, 13 inch, and we picked up an epson all in one printer for $40 at target. We went through 3 pcs during his high school years, with multiple hard drive crashes, repairs etc. Finally realized that a single mac would have likely made it all the way through, and would have been cheaper in the long run.</p>
<p>He has coordinated with his roommate about who is bringing microwave, printer etc, and his to-bring list included the printer. My guess is that there will be plenty of last minute printing needs when they won’t want to run down to the computer lab in the dorm, so the convenience will be a help.</p>
<p>We have also read on the UW website that students can set up a router in their room to create a wireless network inside their room, so that they do not have ethernet cables draped across the bed or desk or whatever. The UW doit site describes the requirements and limits on that – looks like a fairly inexpensive router is allowed. The kids are responsible if other people access the wireless network and allow viruses onto the system etc. The boys may decide they don’t use the wireless in the dorm, but we will probably a router up (with all these back-to-school coupons) along with the ethernet cables recommended and hold onto it so they can decide. </p>
<p>He is definitely counting the days to move-in! Good luck!</p>
<p>a printer is nice, but not necessary if you don’t want to buy one. There’s a computer lab in most dorms (or nearby for the smaller ones) for printing and in the libraries as well. Printing isn’t free but it’s cheap. </p>
<p>Engineering students get 300 pages of free printing per semester if they print in certain labs (the CAE lab across engineering hall for example). I’m not sure if other majors have a similar deal.</p>
<p>Printer not needed. Comp Sci courses give you a certain # of free printer pages my math (added comp sci later) major son used his for papers in other courses as well as the comp sci asssignments. Especially now much can be electronically submitted, I’m sure. Res Halls has available printing, as do other campus buildings such as math I believe. The cost of ink is the real expense, especially with cheaper printers using one cartridge. Son used his desktop most years, finally acquired an older laptop we didn’t use. Comp Sci will require you to use their lab computers for at least some assignments. Math assignments will be available online but “paper and pencil” are still useful for problem solving and proofs I bet. We had an extra printer son never wanted- his first roommate said he could use his printer but that didn’t happen and son used other campus sources instead of taking one from home. Perhaps those with many heavy writing courses and no comp sci free printing might want a printer of their own. Son finally had a smart phone later in college (those cheap parents who won’t subsidize the costs…) and I would consider that usage plus a desktop for some who want a lot of power (eg gamers) and already have a nice desktop.</p>
<p>My older brother said not to bring a printer. First- virtually no room in a typical dorm room for the printer. Second- with the exception of one class two years ago, every assignment he’s had required electronic submission…no paper allowed.</p>
<p>You guys are being very helpful! His roommate will have a printer, and I believe there is a printer in the dorm, too. Did your student use a cable lock on the computer? Lock it in his/her “locked drawer” when not in the room?</p>
<p>If your son’s roommate has a printer, you don’t need one too, just share.</p>
<p>for laptops, I never used my laptop lock and I would say most people on my floor just left them on their desk, a few locked them to their desk. I put it in my locked drawer a few times but it was too much of a hassle and a tight fit (depends on dorm), and my dorm’s doors locked automatically when they close (also depends on dorm)</p>
<p>If you don’t feel safe doing that, use a cable lock, the locked drawer, or just hide it. If you hide it (like underneath clothes in your dresser or something) it won’t get stolen, the odds of somebody searching through your entire room are slim.</p>
<p>Essentially the laptop just needs to accommodate whatever the student wants to do with it recreationally in terms of communication, gaming and media play. Virtually any new laptop will be fully capable of handling the academic usages. There may be some rare exceptions in engineering, but that’s about it. (My son is in Computer Science and has had little or no need for any extraordinary computing power for his academic pursuits.) </p>
<p>My son used a cheap wi-fi router in his dorm room the last couple years and it worked fine. But each room also has two wired ethernet jacks, and the rooms aren’t very big, so it’s entirely possible to do without a wi-fi setup. The Do-it store at State and Lake has all sorts of cables (computer and TV) for cheap, by the way.</p>
<p>I was under the impression that all of the dorms had wi-fi accessible to the student rooms. ???</p>
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<p>That’s some pretty bad luck and/or the user was at fault. Macs use the same general hardware as PCs (e.g. Intel processors, Nvidia graphics adapters), so they aren’t inherently more reliable. A PC can easily last throughout the entirety of college, and it doesn’t need to be high end either. For that matter, you don’t need anything fancy, even if you’re a CS major. IDEs like Visual Studio and Eclipse aren’t that resource intensive, and oftentimes you’ll only need a text editor and command line compiler which take nearly no processing power.</p>
<p>A printer is nice to have but might be more of a luxury in a dorm environment. Wireless access is indeed also available in the dorms.</p>
<p>Agree it was some bad luck plus teen user. I am optimistic that he will be somewhat more responsible with a better computer that is being paid for with his college savings.</p>
<p>On the printer, as a humanities student, he is likely to be writing plenty of papers and he has learned to edit and proofread from a hard copy rather than screen, so the convenience of in-room printer will help. And if it doesn’t make sense, printer can wind up stuffed somewhere or forgotten.</p>
<p>Now if we can sort out how to transport the cheapo bike he found – may be more expensive to get a hitch to attach bike to car than to find another used bike once we get to Madison – we will be one step closer to move-in!</p>
<p>FYI, I’m pretty sure the Do-it store also does ink refills for printer cartridges, by which your son can save a lot of money. The printers are cheap – the cartridges, wow.</p>
<p>The bike hitch cost may make sense if you will be using the same car to carry the bike back and forth repeatedly, but that’s never a sure thing.</p>
<p>Good luck on the move in. It’s an exciting time. My son will be a junior this year and will be living in an apartment for the first time, with four friends. Unfortunately his summer internship gets him back a week after everyone else moves in. He’ll be lucky if they save him a lonely corner somewhere and a couple feet of shelf space.</p>
<p>@badgermom12: According to the website, there is not wireless access in student dorm rooms. There is wireless access to certain areas in each dorm. See this link for details.
[Internet</a> Access | University Housing at UW-Madison](<a href=“http://www.housing.wisc.edu/technology/internetaccess]Internet”>http://www.housing.wisc.edu/technology/internetaccess)</p>
<p>The dorm desks sold the ethernet cables a few years ago- it would have been cheaper to get one from them than the one we bought and brought. </p>
<p>Some street smarts are necessary in housing. Common sense, not paranoia. You shouldn’t leave valuables- laptop, wallet, purse, keys, student ID…- in plain site, especially with an open door when you go down the hall “just for a moment”. Those “moments” can last hours. You should be able to trust your roommate but not necessarily the new friends s/he just met and invited over. Therefore “out of sight” can mean “out of mind” for a would be thief.</p>