the great printer debate

<p>To buy a printer or not buy a printer, that is the question. Where from a scale from 1 - 10 would you say you'd put the importance of a printer in your room? Necessary, nice to have but you can live without it, don't waste your money no one prints these days?</p>

<p>I think students can get away without one just fine. </p>

<p>My son has one, and he did have one of those cliche moments with the deadline for something looming, his printer didn’t work, and something about the formatting didn’t work when he went to print it off at the campus printer, resulting in the document not printing quite right but good enough. Seems easier just to have your own. </p>

<p>But don’t bother with a wireless printer - it won’t work on campus and you’ll end up having to plug it into your computer with a cable.</p>

<p>DS would not want to live without one in his room.</p>

<p>This is something that can be coordinated with the roommate. His roommate brought the printer and DS supplied the replacement ink cartridges. Actually, DS would call me and I would order online from Staples and have the ink delivered to him. Staples has free next day delivery on ink with no minimum purchase.</p>

<p>BTW, you will get roommate contact info during the summer.</p>

<p>We did it a little differently. The main cost of a printer is ink or toner. At our house, we use small laser printers. We sent one to school. The cartridge costs a little more but it lasts many times longer. The cost for a small Brother or other laser is under $100. </p>

<p>The only issue is if you need color printing, which will generally not be needed. It might be nice to have a scanner but you can now “scan” with a smartphone, with a laptop’s camera, etc. The smartphone apps work well. </p>

<p>You can buy a color laser for $150 or so but the cartridges cost more. I wouldn’t bother unless you have a specific need.</p>

<p>We were thinking of getting one with a scanner in it. We use that thing around the clock here. I can’t imagine going out in that weather to a printer, but I wasn’t sure if kids even used printers anymore. I’m guessing we could bring it with us and if he doesn’t use it just bring it home later on.</p>

<p>D2 has a printer. She used freshman year for freshman writing. But she hasn’t used since sophomore year. (It ran out of ink and she never bothered to refilled it.) For most of her classes, she submits her papers/lab reports electronically in .pdf format.</p>

<p>Of course it’s possible that the option for e-submission is partly department-dependent. But she’s submitted l .pdfs for anthro, philosophy, math and bio.</p>

<p>If she does need a print copy, she send her print job to the library print queue and picks it up later on her way to class. (Students can charge prints jobs to the Flex accounts.)</p>