Nursing school laptops

Faith213 · Jun 7, 2008

I'm getting an HP laptop soon for my BSN program. The one I customized totalled up to be around 3k, but it has four years of accidental spills, break, etc. warranty and alot of add-ons. Good luck in finding one. I had a dell, and it was unreliable, now I have a toshiba, and its working good, just make sure you get an extended warranty or accidental warranty because my little sister spilt dr. pepper on mine and it would cost more than the original price to fix it.

eager1hasbegun · Jun 7, 2008

you don't need a special computer for nursing. you need to be able to get online and search for resources and to run dvds for all the cd's that come with your heavy textbooks. and it always nice to have MS Office for you papers and clinical work, but other than that, stick with the basics unless you can afford more.

*torya* · Jun 7, 2008

I got a dell desktop when I started school at college park two years ago through a similar program and I regret it. That computer has given me trouble since the beginning - shutting down randomly, freezing all the time, being slow - my sister got a new computer awhile back and now I just use her old labtop which is an HP. I guess I'm a bit skeptical now about getting computers through schools. Maybe I just got a bad dell though.

eager1hasbegun · Jun 8, 2008

I got a dell desktop when I started school at college park two years ago through a similar program and I regret it. That computer has given me trouble since the beginning - shutting down randomly, freezing all the time, being slow - my sister got a new computer awhile back and now I just use her old labtop which is an HP. I guess I'm a bit skeptical now about getting computers through schools. Maybe I just got a bad dell though.

everyone i've known who owned a dell complained about it...they rave about their customer service being #1--perhaps is because they've had more customers needing service!!

Proverbs 16:3 · Jun 9, 2008

sweetie,

the books you buy for nursing are so expensive you don't need to spend a ton of money on a laptop. I didn't buy the computer my school recommended. I bought an hp desktop for about $400 with the printer and everything else included and i was able to use it. Oh, my school allows us to download free software like office 2003 and stuff from the irt website so that was part of the reason why i bought a basic computer.

If you can't afford it, buy a functional desktop which can allow you to do paper and research that's it. if you want a laptop, i got a toshiba from circuit city fr $664 this february. it's vista with 250gigs, 2048mb ddr2, webcam and stuff. Amazon has it on sale for the $900s but circuit city kept playing with the prices so i just stalked the item till it got to the price i knew i could find no where else. 4 hours after i purchased the laptop, they raised the prices again but keep checking everyday till you see the price drop to one you can afford.

good luck with school; it'll be over in no time.

aHolisticStudent · Jun 10, 2008

Hey,
I was wondering if it was worth it to get a laptop featured by the school... UMAB is recommending students get this laptop that is fit for the nursing program.. should I get it? Or does it really not matter?
From other ppls experience with laptops.. which brand/ make/model would be good for nursing or in general use... im not a game-er, i like watching movie.. i just want something FAST and long lasting..
thanks

Like everyone else has said above, you don't need the computer they sell through the school.

However, the choice of whether or not to get a laptop really depends on your working style. For me, I don't buy notebooks for school, instead I do all my notetaking on my laptop in a program called MindManager; so I needed one with a wireless access card so I could pull down the lecture slides while on campus or in lecture. Secondly, I needed a backup battery since I was often on campus many hours during the first semester and didn't want to lug power supplies back and forth with everything else I carried. Third, don't buy MS Office. The library has copies of MS Office 2007 Ultimate you can buy for $50!!! That's like 6% of what the suite of programs usually retail for. Finally, if you like to work outside (we have a nice "park/garden" outfront) in the sun, spend the money and get a screen that's designed for that environment. Nothing sucks more than having to go inside and work on a beautifully sunny day just because you can't read your screen in the sun. :banghead:

If you don't store your whole life on your computer like I do, then save your money since the school has plenty of computer labs which you can use for free. And some of the tools (like free NCLEX questions) are only available to students when using the computers in the labs.

Best of luck with the program!