Taking a laptop to College!

Ok, so i'm 16 years old and from the UK. I start college in September and i'm studying to be an IT Technition. When i went for my college interview, i asked if students bring a laptop with them.

I was told that some students do, however, its not recommended as the college has Computers and bringing your own laptop, means you aren't communicating with people and making friends at break times, apparently.

So i'm just wonder, for people that go to college/have been to college, did you take a laptop with you, as i'd like to take mine, but don't want to be the only one there.

Also, please tell what country you're from.
Thanks.

im from the uk live near newcastle upontyne i take my macbook pro into college all the time. because they computer at college are windows dell piles of crap. and i find it alot easier to use my own laptop with my own apps and settings .

I used my laptop is college every single day. I don't know how I could do it without my laptop.

Macwillis said:

im from the uk live near newcastle upontyne i take my macbook pro into college all the time. because they computer at college are windows dell piles of crap. and i find it alot easier to use my own laptop with my own apps and settings .

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Do a lot of other students take theres?.
I'm worried about someone stealing it, but then again, if i don't leave it unattended, thats not going to happen.
Does your college have wifi and is it passworded (WPA WEP etc)

I had one in my first year at college, got rid of it, because I spent more time on my laptop, than paying attention in class.

I take it to class all the time. It helps me organize everything and its very easy to use in school. Schools with wifi usually require you to enter just your student number.

Hustle said:

its not recommended as the college has Computers and bringing your own laptop, means you aren't communicating with people and making friends at break times, apparently.

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I find that hilarious. Do they seriously think that a laptop will make an otherwise sociable person withdraw from human contact? Or that not having a laptop will make an introverted person into the life of the party?

As for their own computers...they'll probably be fine for doing your work, but you may not want to be dependent on them. Somtimes the clusters get full, and sometimes you want to do some non-work-related things. Your call.

I could not live without mine during my stay in art school, I was without it for a week while getting it repaired and not having it made my life VERY difficult, it's definitely more convenient to have it. Better than not bringing it and ending up needing it for something. Lots of apple users in art school too, it was a good icebreaker.

I don't live in the UK, but here in the states, it's hard to find a student anymore who doesn't have one with them. I take mine to every class. I type out all the notes I need, and if I need to copy a graph, drawing, diagram or whathaveyou, I do so on a piece of paper.

I couldn't live without it. I'm a much faster typer than a writer, too. Arizona State (ASU) has never said we cannot take them in. I'm actually pretty sure they encourage it.

I'm in the US where some universities actually require students to have laptops, usually technical schools or IT-related schools within a university.

As an undergrad, I didn't have a laptop and WiFi wasn't as widespread, so having one probably wouldn't have been as much use. Now only a few years later as a grad student and with WiFi everywhere, I find my laptop very useful and take it to every class.

Much of the class material is online and even a couple of my textbooks, so having access to all of that means I don't leave anything behind I may need, I don't have to carry as much, and I keep much more organized. Also, having freedom of doing what I want, where I want on my computer is better than being locked down by campus computer security and struggling to find a computer lab with an opening.

I don't see how using campus computers can be more social than a laptop. Quite the opposite! Using campus computers or my own desktop at home, I was either alone at home or in a lab where you can't exactly socialize and bother other people who are working. With a laptop you can go anywhere on a campus or nearby places to work in more social locations like a coffee shop or even just outside on a nice day.

Hustle said:

Do a lot of other students take theres?.
I'm worried about someone stealing it, but then again, if i don't leave it unattended, thats not going to happen.
Does your college have wifi and is it passworded (WPA WEP etc)

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well it does have internet but its wired
im only there one day a week so i tend to just unplug a pc and hook mine up. the system admin wasnt happy the first time i did it but he just gave up on telling me not to. hes fine with it aslong as i use the proxies and stuff hes a canny guy really.


i dont leave my Macbook Pro unattended im either using it or its in my car so...


i wish they had wi-fi but not many people take theres.
also i have the course booklet in a pdf file on my laptop so i dont need to take a paper copy. and my screen is wideenough to have both pages and the pdf open so ican work from it and im a faster typer then writer, besides my hand writing sucks lol looks like a spider has crawled accoress the page and been attacked halfway thru each word.

I found that taking a Laptop to college would be pretty useless.

They have machines there with all the software on that you'll need, and you'll be given more than enough time to get your work done on them. They don't expect you to bring your own computer (although you'll probably be expected to have one at home for typing things up/researching topics).

The only person on my course who brought in a laptop only used it at lunch to play games.

You'll want one for University though, as they promote more independent learning and if you want to use their computers you'll have to book in your time and share with everyone else. Having your own laptop will let you work when you want, where you want.

Diagrams and material handed out is very easily scanned to my computer and organized to my school folder. The Ical program also helps big time with keeping me on top of things. Omni outliner is awesome for notes, pages is great for everything else. Some teachers also tend to erase/rewrite your notes. With a macbook its much easier to go back and edit the notes. I used to write all my notes on paper then would have to go back and rewrite my notes because all my teachers go back. With pen and paper everything looked like hieroglyphics. Take your mac to class.

P.S buy a decent bag...I use an STM evolution.

I go to Sixth form in the UK, and a few people bring in their laptops. I dont, as I dont really want to risk bringing it in as the school has its own computers. However I must admit it would come in very handy to have your laptop there if you're working on a piece of coursework or something. But you dont really see anyone just sitting around the common room jamming on their laptops.

Just dont take it in on the first couple of days, and see what everyone else does.

Taking mine to college. Gonna love it.

my college has its own computers but they are slow crappy and dont have uptodate software etc. i wud much prefer to research using my mac and safari and take notes in pages or something rather than use a resticted version of IE and use word 03.

can anyone tell me if its normal that my backspace key and caps key are looser then all other keys on my macbook

jazz2 said:

can anyone tell me if its normal that my backspace key and caps key are looser then all other keys on my macbook

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Make a thread in the macbook forum and more people would see it and potentially more people will help you.

i found i ended up taking my laptop with me in the end during my studies just down the facilities on offer at university. It was always easy to get a quiet space but impossible to get one with a machine handy. Classic example, get to the library get a machine, find the machine wont connect to the network, sigh.

Like the old Nike saying goes "Just do it" if it does not work out for you, then don't worry about bring it back after the holidays.