Do you need a laptop in N school?

Nursing Students General Students

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Hi, everyone, I was wondering If it is necessary to have a laptop. I havea desktop at home but I was thinking about a laptop, lol don't know if the investment is worth. What advice can you tell me an other new nursing students?

Thanks'

I have $300 off a Dell Inspiron laptop (saves more than the 12% off student discounts) if anyone is interested. I help people buy computers in my spare time. I enjoy it. In my previous life I was a computer science major.

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Not needed but if you are a computer savy person it helps quite a bit. I highly recommend one, particularly a macbook or macbook pro. They are a bit more expensive but hold up to abuse and are light weight. Great for carrying back and forth from class, get a laptop bag or sleeve and you're all set.

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I used a recorder to record my classes and did any transcription and rewriting at home. If you can do your notes on a laptop, by all means, go ahead and bring it to school. It is convenient to have one at school, provided you get around the power source problem and make quadruple sure that you keep it from being stolen. I bought the smallest version that Sony was selling back in 2005. It fits nicely in my backpack with anything else. Very small and versatile. But cost was enormous at the time. And like said before, it is difficult sometimes to find an available power source. Good luck with school.

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I use mine at work only or when I decide not to print something out. Yes, you need one. You can't write peacefully when you're at home or in the library.

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I don't want to start a fight on here, but I'd recommend against getting a Mac while in school for a large number of reasons.

I have built over 1,000 computers for people and helped people buy five times that, and fixed problems with more than I can count.

PM with responses - I have found topics on this can get pretty nasty!

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I have to agree with Jamie and a few others on this thread- my laptop has been infinitely helpful to me. At least in my program, I think it would be more difficult for people NOT to have one. All of our lectures are on powerpoint, and I've found that it is much easier to follow the lecture slides on a computer rather than printing them out beforehand. I hate hand-writing notes and can type a lot faster (and more legibly) than I can write by hand. Moreover, if I want to go to my school's library to study, I can access all of the library's online resources from my laptop; I don't have to use a library computer every time I want to look something up. If your school has a program by which you can purchase a laptop through them, definitely look into that. Also look into buying a voice recorder (or at least a tape recorder) so you can record lectures. Both (laptop and recorder) are definitely worth the investment.

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I wouldn't use one if someone gave me a laptop. It's not like I'm going to type word documents or play counterstrike in the hallway...that's me though.

My PDA and digital voice recorder are my saviors!

Looking up drugs or medical terms in seconds is a time saver. With my digital recorder, I'll tape the lectures and upload them to my computer and burn a cd to listen in my car. If I can get Air Supply songs stuck into my head without effort; I might as well get lectures stuck into my head.

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Specializes in ED.

As you can see it really is a matter of preference. It definately isn't a necessity, I am going fine without one. You may want to see if people use them in class. I have never had anyone in my class take notes during class on a laptop and they would get really weird looks (from other students and the instructor) if someone did. So, you may want to see what the "norm" is at your school. I know I would probably be annoyed if someone was typing next to me in class. And if you are going to be away from home most of the time, doing your work elsewhere, then maybe it is needed. If you plan to be at home most evenings and doing your homework at home, then the desktop is just fine. It is possible to get through nursing school, and do well, without a palm, PDA, laptop, and all the other gizmos you can get. People have been doing it for years! it all is a matter of what is most convenient for you. And what you can afford!

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You can do just as well in Nursing school without a laptop as you can with one. But having one certainly helps.

I take mine to class everyday, type up all my notes on it. I cannot for the life of me keep papers organized. I work on papers and on assignments on it between class time.

A lot of the expensive laptops have a lot of extra features that you can only utilize if you are an ultimate gamer or want a good movie watching experience.

For school use, about $500 is ample, and u can wait for sales and such.

A tip to make the battery last longer is to dim the monitor brightness. I can get almost 6 hours out if my toshiba with just word processing, PDF viewing. I dont carry my powercord with me

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Specializes in Oncology, Med-Surg, Nursery.

I have had no use for one since I have been in school. I just take notes on paper. I've only seen a couple students with laptops, maybe 1 or 2 out of our whole class. I'd say it was more of what you prefer, but at my school you wouldn't need one at all. I own one, but I never take it...I bought it before I ever started college because I thought it'd be easier to have in the dorm. Now that I have moved back home, I rarely use it and never for anything related to class. My desktop works just fine. :)

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You can buy a laptop for $500 but I wouldn't suggest it because you won't be able to get a warranty on it. If anything goes wrong with that computer, it will be a long process to get it fixed and it will cost more than a warranty would.

Thursday evening I contacted my technical support because a small noise was being emitted from my PC. Friday morning technical support was at my house replacing my motherboard (didn't work) and then my LCD screen (didn't work). They are currently shipping me a brand new computer to replace my current one because they can't figure out where the noise is coming from.

Having that security if anything goes wrong that it will be fixed 24 hours later on-site is an incredible security to have while in school.

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well yes i wouldnt recommend getting a refurbished one with less than 1 year warranty.

i bought mine last december for $600. a Toshiba Satellite A100. brand new with 1 year warranty. I assumed the price for a similar computer would have dropped to $500 by now.

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