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Is it worth it getting a laptop for collage?

I am a freshman going into collage and I am wondering if it is generally worth it to get a laptop for collage

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Thank you comment icon Yes, totally worth it. Its nice to have a laptop strictly dedicated for school. Between papers and research your going to want to make sure you have the storage as well. Kimberly Meyd
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Enrique’s Answer

I've recently had to deal with this as my daughter is early in her college life and at first we purchased a iPad, as her school was heavily integrated with Apple products and it worked great. A year later, she has switched schools and her current school is not as heavily integrated with the Apple platform and the iPad is causing her problems, as in, she can't access certain school forms/websites unless she is on a full blown laptop (either an Apple or a Windows laptops). That means she is borrowing my Windows laptop or my wife's MacBook, which is not convenient at all. I know this summer we will have to get her a laptop prior to her fall semester.
So what am I saying? My opinion is, you would better off getting an affordable laptop prior to starting college. Hope this helps.
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Samuel’s Answer

For me, the answer is absolutely yes. But it really depends on a few factors you'll have to determine for yourself.

Here are a few to consider.

  1. You will be less efficient without a personal laptop. Walking to and from a computer lab, checking out a laptop and returning it, finding a laptop with the specific software you need all take time, and during college, your time is incredible valuable. With your own laptop, you could be back in your dorm studying while eating lunch and working with classmates. And this time you spend has a value. Let's say your time is worth $10/hour. If you're spending an hour a day for a 100 day semester, then that's $1000 you've spent for your time. Multiply this by 2 semester over 4 years, and now you're looking at $8000 on your time alone. This is of course a super rough estimate, so I suggest you perform a more accurate estimate on your own, but when you do this, I do think you'll find that it's worth it, even for a low value of your time.
  2. Almost all of your classmates will have a personal laptop, and by not having one, you may not be able to study with them in-person unless you are able to borrow a laptop from your school and/or convince them to meet you wherever you have access to a computer. Maybe you don't need to study with classmates, but most people benefit from it. If you can't study with classmates, you will need to determine how much this will cost you.
  3. You would need to look into if you are able to borrow a laptop from your school's IT / library, and what the restrictions are. For example, if you're able to borrow a laptop for days, continually checkout the laptop for the entire semester, and take it to your dorm or anywhere else, then your inconvenience would be minimal. If this is not the case, then you will need to account for how much time you will be spending checking out the laptop when you need it.
  4. Not having your own laptop puts you at risk and decreases your security of always being able to complete an assignment when you need to. You will likely forget to do an assignment until the last minute during your schooling (or maybe you're a super human and will not!) If this happens with a personal laptop, you can whip it out and start working right away from your dorm or from class. Without one, you would need to run and get access / checkout a school computer or borrow a friend's, which may not even be possible depending on the assignment (i.e. specific software requirements / IT is closed). It's fairly safe to say that you will feel more secure having your own laptop, but only you can determine how much this is worth to you.

Samuel recommends the following next steps:

Investigate if your school loans laptops and if so, what the restrictions are (e.g. how long can you borrow, can you renew immediately after, etc.)
Ask yourself if you are someone who needs to work with others or if you can be equally successful working by yourself.
Estimate the time you would spend over your college career to determine if buying a laptop is a worthwhile investment.
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Catherine’s Answer

In short yes, it is worth it to get a laptop. For me it made it easier to do assignments and a lot of classes actually wanted us to have laptops to bring in and do assignments on or would have videos for you to watch during class. I actually was fortunate enough to be able to also get a surface tablet that worked for my classes and enjoyed the way that it let me write on my PowerPoints while not having to carry around stacks of papers and notebooks to take notes. In the end it’s honestly up to you and what your school may require or support like some commenters mentioned, some school have partnerships with specific companies in regardes to technology so definitely check with your school first because buying a laptop/tablet can be a big investment. Also, someone mentioned not getting a Chromebook and I completely agree. They are made for people doing minimal browsing or usage. If you school used Microsoft suit (Word,Excel,PowerPoint) then it can be tricky to get the documents to download. There are ways to get a google docs into a word doc but it may not always keep the right format and would probably be easier to just have a device that can support Microsoft to begin with. Overall though I feel like looking into your school and what technology they use would be a good start since your school could have a partnership set up already or it could be based on your classes or program.
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Rafael A.’s Answer

This is a simple one.


The answer is yes. It will allow you to do more work whenever the opportunity presents itself and not having to be totally dependent on the tech center or library to get your work done.


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Rachel’s Answer

It will totally benefit you in the long run to have a laptop for college. Having  a laptop takes the stress out of having to go to a friends house to use their computer to complete assignments.  This also allows you a little flexibility being able to enjoy friends and family not wasting your time wondering how you are going to get the work done. When I was in College my laptop was my life. I completed 90% of my studies on-line. Good Luck!!!
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