PDA or Cell phone with Sprint provider?

I'm starting my BSN program this fall and just found out that students are required to buy PDAs or a cell phone with the same function. I'm trying to figure out the cheapest way to go about this without sacrificing too much on quality as I don't want to regret the purchase later on. I am due for a phone upgrade in a couple of months and my provider is Sprint. Does anyone have any experience with them and do they have a phone that might be a good substitue for a PDA? I am so clueless to this kind of thing, I tend to go for the phones that come free with a plan and normally don't really care about all the extra bells and whistles, lol!

TIA!!!!