<p>Are people buying TV receiver cards or do new laptops come with them built in?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You slept during the day? I can’t sleep with background noise or bright lights either, I was talking about during the daytime hours, watching football games and such. If I had a movie night (as in watching a movie at a reasonable hour), it was with my roommate. I guess we were lucky we became friends.</p>
<p>Edit:
- My dorms were very nice and newer, but there was always one tv in the lobby that was usually occupied by guy’s playing video games or just off because it’s too noisy to actually watch anything in a lobby. One TV for 400-500 students, would be basically the same as not having access to one at all, so I wouldn’t assume everywhere is going to have floor lounges that the students use.
- I do agree with one of the parents above though, you may want to wait until you have roommate assignments later on in the year, because who knows, said roommate could already have a TV.
- I don’t really understand the isolation argument when laptops are involved - I feel as though a student being glued to their computer screen watching shows, with headphones in, is more isolating then having a TV where they can talk with people in the room and are more inclined to have someone watch something with them…</p>
<p>Save the TV for one year from now. You will get the sales and know the living situation and habits. Do you expect your child to use the TV now instead of doing homework? It is tempting to take advantage of the current deals, but it is no deal to buy too soon. </p>
<p>The same thing goes for computers. Wait until next summer (literally June/July/Aug) to purchase a laptop or desktop.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How DARE you? That was an appallingly rude shot to take. How DARE you? I SAID in my post that the only reason I had a 32 inch was because that was what my family’s spare tv happened to be, and I also said a smaller one would be fine. In my family a 32in happens to be the smallest tv we have, it was my dad’s office tv and he upgraded and gave me that one to take with me because I wasn’t going to spend the money to bring one at all, and NONE of that has anything to do with autism. And, since you decided to drag this into this, I’ll have you know I almost never watched my television unless I had company over to watch it with, it’s not like I sat there all stereotypical aspie and stared at my tv all day by myself. My autism has nothing to do with this and you should be DISGUSTED with yourself for even going there. You’ve lost all respect from me.</p>
<p>Different family’s have different cultures and it isn’t right to just take the first abnormality about a person you can think of and attribute it to that, that’s downright rude. My perfectly neurotypical parents have a 42in tv in the family room, a 37in in every bedroom, a 32in in the basement, and the 32in spare that was given to me to take to college. Unless there was a space issue to be considered, I personally would not spend the money on a tv smaller than a 32in because that’s not that much bigger than my computer monitor and that seems like a waste of money. If that’s autism than good, maybe more people should have it, there’d be fewer people in financial crisis.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, I don’t sleep during the day…but I may want to use the room some time during the day to study/complete my academic assignments…especially on days when the library close real early or due to inclement weather (We get lots of snow in the winter/spring). </p>
<p>I’m also wary of having my room become a “TV Central” as I’ve seen how much of a distraction it can be for those living in the room to study/sleep and how it can generate enough tensions for fights to break out. </p>
<p>After all, I broke up one of those fights and I initially met that younger friend because his grades were tanking to the point he needed my academic tutoring help if we was to pull up his grades enough to graduate on time. Judging by what I saw…the fact his room was a TV central played a key role in that.</p>
<p>“Save the TV for one year from now. You will get the sales and know the living situation and habits.”</p>
<p>But it is Black Friday TODAY!</p>
<p>I definitely wouldn’t buy a tv before at least checking with roommate, you don’t have to move in first (although you should if you don’t know the configuration of your room yet so you know what will fit and what you’ll have to set the tv on.) At least at my school it seemed rare that people actually bought tvs special for the dorm, but almost everybody had one-- they just had spares on hand at home like I did. Don’t want to buy something roomie already has 10 months out and then not be able to return it anymore. There will always be sales somewhere!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I feel like all of those problems can be avoided if the TV is just turned off while studying or “quiet time” or whatever…and this whole “TV Central” concept… just seems like people were being rude then and not respecting space…not really a reflection on their being a TV in the room but more so people being immature/rude… </p>
<p>If I had to deal with people acting like that, I would not have a TV in my room. However, since I have never heard of people (at my school) just barging in/being rude to the other roommate over a TV - I say at my school it is a nice addition. I think this all really depends on who you room with, and the atmosphere of the school then.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This actually wasn’t as much of a problem at my LAC as most people had heavy academic workloads and preferred spending their free time socializing in campus EC clubs, dorm lounge conversations on a given academic field(i.e. history, philosophy, physics, chem, CS), playing music(we have an attached conservatory), being active in political/campus organizations, etc. </p>
<p>The bit about my younger friend took place on a larger urban university in a NE city where I worked after graduation. As I moonlighted as an academic tutor…that’s how I first met him. And unlike my LAC…people in his dorm were very noisy, rowdy, and immature like a poor parody of Animal House. In the midst of all this, his room happened to be “TV Central” for the entire floor.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Which is why I just said it must depend on the atmosphere… </p>
<p>I know plenty of people that work, have challenging academics, go to clubs, have plenty of friends and socialize… but still like to watch a TV show sometimes at night. I just feel like this whole TV topic is being a bit blown out of proportion to the extremes and not the average hardworking college student.</p>
<p>“But it is Black Friday TODAY!” - And there will be another one next year 
That’s when the student will know what is or isn’t needed in the room. Even cheaper than a sale TV is no TV (if not wanted or if roomie has one). </p>
<p>I do have one kid who is an avid football fan. She finds ways to watch an occasional game online.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>While your other points are well taken, your point above is debatable. From what I’ve seen on most college campuses, including a couple of Ivies…I would not classify the average student as “hardworking”. While most of the students we and CCers hang out with tend to be hardworking…there are plenty more undergrads who treat their 4+ year college journey as a social/partying experience. </p>
<p>I’ve seen plenty of examples of this firsthand on most other campuses and plenty written about this phenomenon…including a shocker that an average US college student only puts in an average of 2-4 hours studying/week.* </p>
<p>Shocking to me as even the non-AP students at my urban public magnet high school put in more hours of studying per day than that. Only the absolute geniuses and slackers who end up voluntarily leaving within the first two years are able to get away with less. </p>
<ul>
<li>Probably skewed by kids who prioritize partying, beer, and SOs and/or majoring in gutted fields with extremely low workloads.</li>
</ul>
<p>Get a Slingbox. It attaches to your router and cable at home and allows you to watch all your cable channels on your computer, wherever you are, via wireless internet. Our D uses it to watch our home cable system on her computer at school. There is no monthly fee.</p>
<p>Strangely, neither of my kids even wanted TV’s (we had a spare that I offered to each of them, I got no takers). </p>
<p>When they’re home on break they watch TV nonstop, but say that they really don’t have time nor the inclination for it at school. </p>
<p>Not passing judgment, but I honestly don’t think kids watch much TV at school, thank god. FB sucks up so much screen time when would they have the time?</p>
<p>Personally I would wait for the first semester grades, but that’s me.</p>