<p>We chose to pay for both - laptop is graduation present and we encourage creative book purchasing online rather than submitting to outrageous campus bookstore prices.</p>
<p>I don’t think there is a “should” when it comes to paying for a college student’s expenses. I would think it would be a “joint venture” between parent/kid. Going to college is a privilege, not a right. If a parent is stretched to the max to send his kid to a school, then I would think the kid would forego many wants to help out. But if a parent is able, it would be nice to pay for books and maybe a computer.</p>
<p>“I’ve heard that they will be offering four-year programs soon.”</p>
<p>BA in liberal arts starts this fall, along with two new AS programs…computer science/gaming and life sciences.</p>
<p>Among most HS classmates parents and in most Asian-American communities where the parents valued a college education, it wouldn’t even occur to them to separate books/first computer out from undergrad tuition. </p>
<p>As far as they were concerned, they were all part and parcel of “educational expenses” they felt duty-bound as parents who valued undergrad education for their best/brightest kids to pay for books and the first computer. </p>
<p>On the other hand, all spending money…whether for non-dining hall meals, entertainment, or gas/transportation money beyond educational necessities(i.e. traveling to research lab or job) was completely on the student. </p>
<p>Incidentally, I bought all my own books and purchased my first laptop. However, my extended family did have much input in guiding my purchase of the latter due to their supposed STEM expertise. Input which turned out to be a huge mistake to my regret when it turned out I received a lemon and the company ended up going out of the laptop making business not too long afterwards. </p>
<p>From that point on, I was of the opinion that going cheap on laptop computers…something which should last you 4 years…is truly the epitome of “penny wise pound foolish.” An opinion only further confirmed as I rapidly became proficient enough to troubleshoot and repair desktop/notebooks in professional IT settings.</p>
<p>Thanks for the post, cobrat. I like the idea you expressed.</p>
<p>I hadn’t thought of it quite that way before, but it makes sense to think of a computer and books as educational necessities, which parents want to make sure their student has, and treat these things differently from entertainment and optional activities.</p>
<p>We didn’t have the concept of a laptop when I started at BC - computers were typically a lot heavier and larger - but there were ample lab facilities for the students to use.</p>
<p>I generally agree today on getting a better laptop than what you get in the bargain bins. This wasn’t true twelve years ago - back then, the lower cost stuff was pretty good - but then lower cost may have been $1,000. Around 2004-2005, HP led the way in slashing costs and quality and Dell went along for the ride and we’ve had a race to the bottom since then. I still like the Dell XPS and business lines but that’s about it for me.</p>
<p>It differs so widely. We usually paid for the first semester items, bringing student with us, so he could see the numbers and what the routine is. This included checking options on line and comparison shopping. Kind of like patterning the kid to the process so he would know what to do next time around. Maybe having the student pay half is a good idea, so he feels the cost too.</p>
<p>But sometimes these kids, and I am not targeting ADHD or any other issues when I use the word “these”, have poor judgement. My son who just graduated with a double major in econ/math was struggling big time at the end of this last term indicating that it was touch and go for him in completing a major project. Had he mentioned that the motherboard of his computer blew up, we might have helped him out in more than in sentiments. It would not have been a wise lesson to give the kid, if he had to pay for another term, even for the one course. Sometimes these students cut corners where it is just plain stupid, risky and more expensive to do so. </p>
<p>I have one son, who is better than I am, in finding good deals and he has very good common sense. In his case, going through the ritual was probably a waste of time and my money. He would have made out just fine. I have others than might not have gotten their books, some because they are just too foolish, and some because they are too cheap to spend their own money, and doing poorly because of those sentiments ends up costing the parents in the end.</p>
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<p>Actually, there was crap back then as well. Lexmark and Packard-Bell were two brands in the '90s that had a lot of issues and frequently send back for repairs.</p>
<p>Always surprises me that some suggest the only choices are super-charged expensive sorts or bottom of the barrel cheapo. And nothing in-between. My kids got just exactly what they needed (including reputation and/or solid reviews,) at good prices or on sale. Most kids only do surfing, email, research, some media viewing or listening and word processing, not the level of engineering or processing tasks that requires super power.</p>
<p>I consider up-to-date computers and books as educational necessities, and it wouldn’t occur to me that they are really any different from tuition / room and board. My kids make a good effort to get cheaper versions of books through buying used, through Amazon, etc. and selling back the ones they don’t want anymore, but that’s just the right way to be – I don’t have a specific budget in mind for books. What you need is what you need; just try to go about it most cost-efficiently, that’s all.</p>
<p>I would never want my kid to choose courses based on the cost of the book.</p>
<p>My parents are financing my whole college education (room & board, tuition, personal expenses, etc) minus $2700 that I have to earn myself. Since I chose to upgrade my meal plan and room it increased the total cost and thus decreased the amount I would have left for “personal expenses.” As it stands now, I will receive $402.67 from them for my personal use (including textbooks, phone, etc.) the rest is up to me to earn by working if I want extra spending money.</p>
<p>For a laptop, my parents agreed to pay $800 which is reasonable for a good PC. However I chose to get a MacBook Pro, so I had to come up with $500 myself.</p>
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<p>Yes, I recall that there were vendors that had problems back then but it’s not something that you expected from the established companies with good reputations.</p>
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<p>There are things that are in-between. In general, I want something with a good case,
decent motherboard, good quality construction and decent parts and good service. Now any company can get a bad batch of parts - in those cases you depend on good service to get you through an inconvenience. But things like design problems with the power supply, cooling, battery, case, etc. are things that may not have workarounds.</p>
<p>The Dell XPS line of laptops is Dell’s better consumer line but it isn’t their absolute top-of-the line. That would be their Alienware stuff which is more geared for gamers.</p>
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<p>My laptop is 4.5 years old and I ordered a new MacBook Pro Retina ($3,000) to replace it recently but decided to cancel the order. When I thought about it, there’s nothing that my old laptop can’t do - a new model would be lighter and have better battery life which is nice but my current laptop should meet my computing needs for the next three or four years. A new system would be more of a want.</p>
<p>College students don’t really need the compute power of the latest generation of laptops. Computers from five or six years ago should be fine. If they have computationally-intensive stuff to do, they can probably do it in the university labs.</p>
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<p>I’d agree with that with the most part and practice this in my own life. </p>
<p>My only reservation with sending a new undergrad off to college with a 5+ year old laptop is the greater possibility of hardware failure at the most inopportune times…especially hard drive failures or a dead/dying LCD screen/backled. </p>
<p>Unless they are proficient at being their own tech support, know how to source inexpensive quality replacement parts, and have the time at the time…it may not be the best plan. </p>
<p>Granted, part of this is from seeing the actual effects of kids who had parents who felt that “any computer is good enough” as “all they’ll be doing is word processing, research, media consumption, etc”.</p>
<p>It may be worthwhile to do a quick refurb on an old computer or have a backup. Our kids’ MacBook Pros are around five-years-old and they came with LED backlit screens so no dimming issues there. Our ten-twelve year-old laptops do have CCFL dimming issues.</p>
<p>Changing the disk on most computers that are five-six years old is easy. That’s not true for MacBook Pros (it took me a few hours to change the disk on mine) and I’d guess that it’s going to be hard on the current ultrabook models. I know that my kids could change one out on your typical Dell - it’s actually more work backing up your disk and later restoring it. SSDs will get rid of the disk-reliability problem in the future.</p>
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<p>I agree. It strikes me as being penny-wise and pound-foolish not to have a new or close-to-new computer that is as up to date as possible - which doesn’t mean top-of-the-line in every dimension, of course. It’s a productivity issue. I know my productivity has suffered when I’ve had wonky work computers, crashes, etc. - no reason to think my kids would be any different. As it stands, they got new MacBooks (they had had Dells previously) and … knock on wood … so far so good, no problems at all.</p>
<p>We pay for everything directly education related. However, my dear brother, who is an IT professional with no kids of his own, purchased the kids’ first college computers and outfitted them based on his expertise. We were (and are) very grateful. Otherwise, as Pizzagirl said, they need whatever books are assigned and one can only do the best in finding good prices.</p>
<p>My D2 is going into her junior year and we have never given her a single penny of spending cash. She got a job in her major the first week on campus and has kept it since. She now has an office, an assistant and is named on the website for the department and under the “who to contact regarding . . .” section. Contacts made at that job got her a summer job in the same field making some serious money this summer. God bless her, she is cheap.</p>