<p>Is the cable at Umich in the dorms any good? Do most students get a TV or do they think it's too distracting?</p>
<p>I got a TV. The cable is pretty good but I hardly watched it. I played xbox and watched ESPN through my xbox. Most “shows” I watched were on my laptop.</p>
<p>^I can’t decide whether or not I want to keep my Xbox or sell it. I’m going to be a freshman in CoE. </p>
<p>I’d like to keep it, but I don’t want my grades to suffer/play all the time. Can you speak honestly about your experiences in engineering and having the free time to play Xbox, go to parties, etc?</p>
<p>Bring it. There will be late nights where you don’t want to party or go out , or you couldn’t if you wanted to. You may want a break from your HW too. </p>
<p>My roommate and I would switch off playing ranked Fifa games some nights while the other did homework.</p>
<p>I am not a big partier. I’m also not a hermit. But I would still bring it.</p>
<p>Bring it. I had a 42" Plasma which was a gem for away football games. Cable package is real good but expensive.</p>
<p>I wasn’t looking to get a TV last year, but my roommate had one, and I reckon that I derived at least a few hundred bucks of utility from it.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for cheap TVs, try shopping for refurbished ones. I bought a 32-inch refurbished flatscreen for $211.</p>
<p>It’s amazing how many flatscreen TV’s are moving into the dorms— some students bring really huge screens, too… personally I would NEVER recommend a TV in a dorm room for a college student. You really need to eliminate the temptations more than this. On the other hand, the university has like 6 cable channels on the system on which it prints activities, events, menus, but also runs some common class lectures. But on the other-other hand, all that info is online and you can go to a classroom or library to watch your televised lecture. A lot of students do bring a TV but your grades will be better if you don’t have one-- so you have to decide what’s most important. PS check with your roommate so you don’t end up with 2 or more TV’s. Also, the U forces you to pay for cable in your room unless “all” roommates agree to cut it off.</p>
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<p>You must be really irresponsible and have no self-control if you think having a TV in your room really harms your grades that much. You can always turn the thing off if you need to focus…</p>
<p>Students without a TV get better grades? Hmmmmm ok</p>
<p>If you don’t have self control that’s not my problem</p>
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<p>There are really a lot of other temptations in college. Alcohol, drugs, sex… If a student can’t handle limiting his TV watching, I can’t imagine how they’d manage all the rest of college.</p>
<p>Please note IF grades are the MOST important thing to you, you ditch the TV. Students who have a plan to go to a good med school/grad school/law school, or graduate phi beta kappa or with honors… these students I guarantee you do not have a tv unless a roommate brings one. The same can be said for skipping classes on Thurs/Fri, partying all weekend, etc.–the students who are performing the best just don’t do it (at least not very often). Not saying that TV"s aren’t nice to have.</p>
<p>I think you are giving the distraction qualities of TVs WAAAAAY too much credit.</p>
<p>Owning a TV is not equivalent to partying all weekend or skipping classes.</p>
<p>Grades are very important to me at school and I brought a TV last year, I am doing pretty well. Grades are still important to me and yet I am actively searching the internet for a new, bigger TV for my dorm this year.</p>
<p>TVs CAN be a distraction, like almost anything else. If you don’t have the self control of at least a 3 year old though, then I wouldn’t get one.</p>
<p>If you don’t have the self control to have a tv without letting it get in the way of your schoolwork, or the maturity to realize that you have better things to do than preach and condescend on the internet, “med/grad/law” school will crush you. Go do your homework and stop being a jerk.</p>
<p>jelp, you’re saying you guarantee that there’s not students who have a plan to go to a good med/grad school and graduate with honors that have TVs?
…wow</p>
<p>Take a chill pill CCers. I don’t think jelp was implying that getting a T.V will definitely distract one from his or her studies. He was merely asserting the FACT that hardcore-studious college students would not even want to consider the possibility of watching TV, when that time can be spent studying. Granted, this is not very healthy, so I am not condoning this. </p>
<p>That aside, I’m sure there are many times when people who possess “self-control” stay in front of the TV longer than they originally intended. Again, this minor extension/“distraction” is negligible to most, but there are those who consider every minute, heck every second, of the day valuable. THIS is what jelp was posting about, so please don’t use his words against him, because in reality, you too come off as immature people simply justifying your owning a T.V.</p>
<p>I mean come on: please point me to where jelp says he condemns people who own TVs or where he proclaims that he won’t be able to balance watching TV with his studying. Accusing him of lacking self-control is going a teeny-bit too far.</p>
<p>Well he assumed your grades would be better without one</p>