<p>My son will be a freshman this fall and he will need a new laptop. I will do the usual online research, but any recommendations from current and/or former students? </p>
<p>Also, does anyone know if there is Wi-Fi everywhere? Especially the dorms? Also, what about printing documents? Will he need a printer? Thanks!</p>
<p>they have some suggested ones online i believe. and yes wi-fi is everywhere. they also have printers in most dorms, but i guess a personal one would never hurt. </p>
<p>some places give free printers if you buy a laptop with a college id on you, so thats worth looking into…</p>
<p>don’t go cheap on the laptop, it has to last 4 years (unless you want to get a new one) so get a good quality one. (high quality mac or pc, preference on those is personal.)</p>
<p>When S entered ND 3 years ago, they had a deal and recommended a Lenova. We upgraded as much as possible and paid $99 extra for a 4 year warranty. I don’t usually believe in extended warranties, but I’d highly recommend this one. 4 years is a long time and college students, particularly freshmen and particularly freshmen men, aren’t always as gentle as they should be with belongings.</p>
<p>We have used OIT services a few times and they have been kind, helpful, and quick. Last summer S had a major screen issue. It was an $850 repair and cost us nothing.</p>
<p>There are a multitude of wifi networks as have been discussed and i have never had a problem in the dorm (there are also plug ins in the dorms if there is ever a problem). </p>
<p>For printers, you are given 1,000 black and white pages to print over the course of the year…i got a free printer with my laptop which is nice in case something doesn’t work with the system (this can easily happen so getting a cheap personal printer is a good idea), but I used all 1,000 pages and saved a lot on ink and paper. (they technically give you 100 dollars and black/white pages are 10 cents and color is 65 cents). </p>
<p>for laptop, it depends on what you are majoring in - for math/engineering/science I would probably recommend a PC (there is another thread on this as well) - for anything else, a mac will be fine I believe - for engineering, a lot of more advanced programming is for Pcs only though there is supposedly a mac verison of AutoCad coming out for macs in March 2011 but we will see how good that is.</p>