Which Calculator -- TI 84 Plus CE or TI Nspire CX?

Student Lounge College Life
1

I’m a high school senior, but I’m looking for college student options so I put this thread here.

I’ve been using a TI 84 Plus Silver Edition since 7th grade, but I’m upgrading calculators because I’m giving one of my siblings my old one. I’m torn as to which calculator I should get – the 84 Plus CE or the Nspire CX. If it matters, I plan on majoring in finance, and my senior course load (only classes where calculator would be used) is below, so you can see what classes I’ll be using this for. Thanks in advance!

Senior Calculator Courses:
Calculus 3, AP Physics C, Statistics, AP Statistics

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I personally LOVE my TI- Nspire CX (except mine is the CAS edition). I’ve had it for three years and it still works great.

3

If you can afford the Nspire, get that

4

AP Statistics is a very calculator-heavy course, so I recommend getting a calculator you can get really familiar with the different commands. For me, I used a regular TI-NSpire (the original one) because of the improved interface and graphics, and because I got it for free. I don’t have a CX although I’ve seen them used, and they look pretty nifty.

However I haven’t used my graphing calculator since freshman year of college (and I’m a senior, majoring in math). So you may want to consider price as well.

5

Thanks for the responses! I ended up buying the 84 Plus CE, because it was a layout I was most familiar with, and had read that most people don’t need anything past an 84 for college work. The NSpire was definitely tempting, and I’m sure I would’ve liked it. But for me, the 84 does the job with the layout I know.

6

Okay, saw that you’re going into finance! I have to pity the engineers that don’t get a calculator with a computer algebra system as their homework and test problems take so much longer… And I have to dig through looking for an algebra mistake / wait for the person to finish solving solving their equations while helping people…

7

I need to mention: When you get to college, a lot of times, graphing calculators are prohibited in math classes for exams. I’ve only had two classes in my math major that allowed a graphing calculator: statistics and numerical analysis. And those weren’t until my senior year (this year).

In engineering classes, the norm is becoming no graphing calculators since the FE exam only allows scientific calculators. Be wise with how you spend your money!