<p>Is a printer in your Dorm Room necessary?</p>
<p>A friend’s kid at another school must hand in 90% of work electronically and never used the printer for academics. Got me thinking, maybe it is not needed…</p>
<p>It is useful to have it in the dorm room, but not entirely necessary. My S’s suitemate had one, but on other occasions, he just went to the library (or ???) and printed out stuff. I do not believe between the 4 of them they ever had to change the ink cartridge, but I’ll double check. It was sure handy to print out boarding passes and shuttle tickets and stuff like that - things that you can send direct to the printer from your computer. My S also used the printer for a few scholarship apps that he needed to print out and forms for professors to fill out and resume copies.</p>
<p>It is quite useful to have one, based on my experience. Even though the students have access to plenty of printers/scanners, etc. around campus, it has just been easier to have my own. As a matter of fact, I am considering investing in a new printer with a built-in scanner for next year, since I’m a note-taker for ODS. You don’t necessarily want to have to rely on others for quick and easy printing, either.</p>
<p>That being said, I only had a few assignments that needed to be printed out last year, and others might get less use out of a printer.</p>
<p>Asked engineer son when we were packing him up “Did you ever use this thing?” in reference to the printer. He said that he did a fair bit. No idea what he used it for but it did get used.</p>
<p>My D had an all-in-one printer and she did use it. There are plenty of places on campus to print, but if you’re a procrastinator and therefore prone to printing at 2 am, a printer in the room can come in very handy.</p>
<p>My S used his a few times this year. I think it falls into the certainly not mandatory, but definitely good to have category. I went with an HP All-In-One and set it up with HP’s e-print feature. The printer has an email address, and if you send an attachment via email to the specified address, it will print automatically. It was handy to send documents I knew he would need directly to his printer so they were waiting on him.</p>
<p>my kid had a printer for years 1 and 2 and then had to rely on the printers at the sorority house for year 3. the sorority house NEVER HAD ANY INK!!! (which is unacceptable in my opinion) i think she ended up relying on sending her files to a friend to print and bring to her. :/</p>
<p>yes, you can go use the printers in other locations, but they tend to do a lot of work late at night and having to go somewhere to use a printer would be a pain. i think one printer per suite would be plenty.</p>
<p>I think it depends upon your student. Ours definitely needed and uses the printer frequently even though she did submit many assignments electronically during the first two years. To her, having the printer was extremely helpful and convenient. While it may work in certain situations, I personally would not recommend planning to share one printer and the ink between four suite mates on a regular basis because I fear it could easily lead to conflict. Once in a while is one thing, but every day is another thing. It might work out well for some, but I would consider that option carefully before making a commitment.</p>
<p>If you decide to purchase a printer, consider the cost of the ink cartridges and the amount the printer uses. We found our best option was to invest in a better printer that consumed less ink than many of the lower models. I wouldn’t recommend purchasing too many ink cartridges at one time either. Many printers recognize the expiration date on the ink cartridges and won’t allow them to be used past that date. You don’t want to be stuck with expensive cartridges you cannot use.</p>
<p>My son used his. Mostly at 2 am, or as running to a class in the am. </p>
<p>I am glad we insisted on him having one.</p>