Back to School Tech List

Since I already posted up my college advice column I might as well post up some more college related stuff, especially before my knowledge and experiences become dated. Since technology changes so quickly now I can't imagine I'll be able to write up a post like this next year (you know, when those flying cars arrive).

It's easy to go overboard when purchasing technology for a freshly minted college student. Hopefully this guide will get everyone on the right track and will help you to avoid frivolous purchases.

Portable Printer; A standard printer will work fine for a dorm room or apartment but what could be even more useful is a printer you can carry around in a laptop case or backpack. With my schedule I often found myself writing a paper while away from my room and I would have to bum around the student government office looking for a printer to avoid a lengthy trip back to my room. A portable printer solves the problem and assists in time management. You can pick up a used Canon BJC-80 Portable Printer on Amazon for around $80 or you can go for HP Deskjet 460C Mobile Printer which will be more expensive. Expect to spend $200-300 dollars

It might still be worth the 50 bucks it takes to by a Lexmark scanner/copier/printer for the dorm rooms well.

2 or 3 Laptops; just not all at once. There are two philosophies when purchasing a laptop. You can go overboard and purchase a high quality cutting edge machine and spend a ton of money in the hopes the machine will last through college. This is what I did and I succeeded. My computer didn't have a DVD player or CD Burner and I couldn't use jump drives. I was probably the last person at the U of M still using 3 1/2 inch floppys.

The reality is you're going to need a laptop and you're going to need a new one every 2 years. I wouldn't recommend buying new. You can get a refurbished laptop on eBay for 20%-30% of the price of a new machine and they'll perform nearly as well as a made to order machine. In fact, you can often order two laptops and a desktop off eBay for the price of a new laptop. Believe me, that is the way to go. I have yet to have a problem buying refurbished computers off of eBay.

Several smaller jump drives; you can never have enough jump drives. You should have one in every jacket and backpack. You can use them to back up data and they give you the option to use any computer you wish. I've seen some jump drives go for under ten bucks at large retail chains.

Two gig flash drive; Yeah, among other things you should have your computer backed up somewhere. Always back up data. Two gigs is a minimum, ThinkGeek has some drives with a little more oomph.

Digital Camera; As someone who didn't bring a camera to school when I first started out I was surprised to find out how many times I found myself needing one for various projects. On top of that you can take pictures of your loony lefty crazies on campus and put them on a blog.

Ti82 Calculator; or whatever calculator you're comfortable using. I refused to upgrade my old school Ti82 but I'm sure most young'ins are using the spiffier models now. Just be sure to regularly use the most advanced calculator you can. Even if you're getting into liberal arts you're still very likely to need a calculator with advanced statistical functions.

Pay as you go cell phone ; I've seen some phone bills as high as 3,000 dollars. It's unlikely anyone is going to top that but pay as you go makes more sense anyway.

Mobile Broadband card; A lot of school work is done over the internet. Assignments are emailed, class notes are online and research over the internet is now the norm. You're just not going to want to be out of range of the net. A mobile broadband card from Sprint or something similiar from Verizon allows you to get to the Internet anywhere you can use a cell phone. You can get these for under 200 bucks.

There you go, for about 1200 dollars you can meet all your technology needs for college.