Archive for the 'College Technology' Category
I firmly hold the belief that every college student these days needs a computer. Of course, whether you go for the laptop or the desktop is up to you (I personally use a desktop). However, no matter what machine you’re using, there are certain applications that are a must have. Some are needed simply for school; others are required just to be a hip college student.
1. Microsoft Word – I use a Macintosh, but I still have Microsoft Office for the Mac. It’s an MS Word world, and college students should definitely have this application. Your professors will mail out things in word documents, and if you are sending papers to school computers, you’ll need that lovely .doc extension. It’s true that other word processing programs sometimes allow for conversion to Word format, but if you’re anything like me, the extra effort is almost not worth it.
2. PowerPoint – Yes you’ll need PowerPoint as well. If you go your entire college career without ever having to do a presentation, then you are more fortunate than I. PowerPoint may not be nearly as nice as some other presentation programs, but it gets the job done, and if you have to send it to a school computer, it will need to be compatible. Also, chances are, if you’re working in a group, the other members will also have it. You don’t want to be “that guy” who causes project issues because you don’t have the right application.
3. Excel– I list Microsoft Excel, which is the third installment from Microsoft Office that has college utility. However, it’s not a requirement for every college student. However, it’s needed by many. If you are doing anything with business, statistics, or math, you’re probably going to be required to have Microsoft Excel. In fact, I had to take an entire business class about Microsoft Excel. It would have been quite complicated if I didn’t even have the software.
4. iTunes/Windows Media Player/Other – College students love their music, it’s no secret. So, if you want to be cool, you better have a nice program to play music from your computer, and transmit songs to your mp3 player. If you’re rocking the iPod, then iTunes is a necessity. If you’re a rebel with a Zune, then the windows application will be your saving grace. Either way, you don’t want to be the one to ruin the party because you don’t have any music on your computer.
5. Mozilla Firefox – Alas, I have made my allegiance known. I think Internet Explorer is terrible, and most college students agree with me. If you hate spyware, don’t like viruses, and like neat add-ons, and the ability to customize your web browsing experience, then Firefox is your best bet. Sure, with Windows Vista, Internet Explorer now has “tabbed browsing” (something Firefox has had for years), but wouldn’t you rather go with the innovator, not the imitator? However, keep in mind that some professors and/or colleges may still be in the dark ages of web browsing, so having Internet Explorer is not always a bad thing, just prepare to run a virus check immediately afterward.
6. Azureus/BitTorrent/Other – I’m not advocating illegal downloading, because no one should ever infringe upon the rights of millionaire artists who need the money for their extra mansions. However, many college students, which don’t include myself because I would never download a movie or album illegally, like to download such things. In order to get your torrents, you’ll need a program, so make sure you get a good one. However, be forewarned that the RIAA is cracking down on college students everywhere, and have enlisted the help of some universities to turn over names associated with dorm IP addresses. The last thing you want as a financially strapped college student is a lawsuit on your hands. The point is, download at your own risk, and make sure you have a good program. I recommend Azureus, but then again, I wouldn’t know because I’ve never used it.
7. Google Earth – Well, I suppose college students don’t need this application, but it sure helped me when I was a lost and lonely freshman on one of the biggest campuses in the country. Plus, you can look at cool landmarks, such as your University’s Stadium, from a bird’s eye view. Now that makes it an application worth getting!
8. iPhoto/Kodak EasyShare/Other – Photo programs are definitely a must in college. How else can one organize all those neat photos taken at parties, sporting events, and exciting college vacations? It’s nice to have a great application that may also allow you to eliminate redeye, so your friends won’t untag themselves when you upload it to Facebook.
9. Adobe Acrobat Reader – Professors have an obsession with PDF files. I’m not quite sure why, but the result of this obsession is that you need this application in order to view them. If you don’t have it, then get it post haste!
10. A Calendar Program – I use iCal, but any other application will work great. In college you have a lot to do, and organization is a huge key to success. I recommend updating it frequently and marking in all your class times for the semester or quarter. If you have an appointment, or even something as simple as lunch with a friend, have it handy.
11. Widgets and Gadgets of All Kinds – These fun little applications can be dead useful. Search around for specific ones that can help you. I usually always use a sticky note widget, a weather widget, a Google search widget, and a computer status monitor widget. Find what will help you the most and use it. Widgets and Gadgets are a fantastic invention.
12. Thunderbird/Other E-mail Client – My e-mail client (Thunderbird) is one of my favorite computer applications. It makes my life so much easier. At the moment, I have 4 e-mail addresses that all send mail to Thunderbird. When you are in college, you will generally have at least two e-mail addresses. Your university will most likely provide you with one, and you may have one from high school. If you are really smart, you’ll also set up a Gmail account. Having one application that can put all those e-mails in one place is quite convenient, and beats significant time wasted logging in and out constantly.
13. AIM/MSN/iChat/Adium/Other Messaging Application – College Students like to keep in touch, and although Facebook is trying to steal yet another market with their new messaging system, nothing beats the old school AIM. If you don’t have a screen name, you should definitely get one. How else are you going to IM your roommate who’s sitting in the same room (a favorite pastime of mine, having whole AIM conversations with my roommate sitting a mere 10 feet away).
14. World Book Encyclopedia/ Other Type of Encyclopedia – In college, you will most likely have a plethora of research assignments. While going to the library is sometimes unavoidable, for the smaller projects (and even to add to some big ones), having an encyclopedia handy is always a plus. If you’re making a PowerPoint presentation about a specific topic, you can sometimes get movies and pictures to add. While the internet, and Wikipedia are great tools, some professors are against any type of internet resource that doesn’t come from a site with a .edu address. Therefore, with encyclopedia software, you can still get some high quality information to add to your report from your very own desktop.
So there are 14 software applications that I feel every college student should have on their computers. Luckily, most computers already come with them installed, so the next step is to actually use them! If you don’t have anything on this list, then you might want to get with the times. You just might find that some applications can make your life much easier
May 11 2008 | College Advice and College Fun and College Technology | No Comments »
I was thinking about grades, and GPAs the other day. After contemplating it for a while, I decided that there are certain things in college that can have a negative effects have a negative effect on your grades. Since I’m a fan of lists (as many readers may know already), I’ve come up with 7 G.P.A. killers you’ll face in college. There not really ranked, as I’m listing them off the top of my head.
1. World of Warcraft – This not only has the potential to be a GPA killer; it’s can almost be a GPA eviscerater. When I was an RA, some of the students who were supremely addicted to WoW rarely ever went to class, stayed up at all hours of the night (doing raids I assume), ate a lot of pizza and didn’t talk to women (unless they were online characters). Any MMORPG can make it quite difficult to maintain academic focus. Why study when you can upgrade your character’s skills and get some gold after doing a mission (the first sign of addiction is if doing this takes priority over eating or sleeping)? So, if you are willing to pay the fee to play, then be very careful and watch those grades. Here’s a tip, reward yourself with WoW. If you get an A on a test, say, “Okay, now I can go do that raid with my guild.” Or, if you have homework, say to yourself “After I finish this paper, I’ll complete two quests.” Then everybody wins and your parents won’t call you wondering why your highest grade is a D-. Interestingly enough, online gaming hours have decreased recently. Maybe people are starting to realize how MMO addiction can become a huge problem, and so they are taking steps to manage their time..
2.Oblivion and other RPGs – Okay, so if World of Warcraft is the king of GPA killing, then most RPGs are at least princes or knights. I, for one, am completely addicted to Oblivion. It’s probably unhealthy. I just can’t stop upgrading my character and completing quests. My suggestion for this type of addiction is the same as the aforementioned World of Warcraft addiction; use it as a reward for completing tasks.
3. Relationships – Now, I’m not being negative, I’m just being realistic. When you get in a college relationship, your grades will most likely suffer. Of course everyone’s different. However, if you are anything like me, you think it’s much more fun to hang out with your significant other than study. If you are in a real serious relationship, then stress from fights can be enough to mess with your grades as well. If you’re in a long distance relationship, then those long weekends you spend going to see your boyfriend or girlfriend at his or her campus will undoubtedly have an adverse affect on your education. Also, make sure it’s even worth trying the long distance thing, because the stress will also hurt your grades. So, my suggestion is once again to use the reward technique. Allow yourself to hang out with your significant other only AFTER you’ve completed your assignments. If you do badly on a test because you didn’t study, then try skipping seeing you’re loved one for a weekend and spend it studying instead. Beware of college relationships anyway, because sometimes you can get really burned.
4. Excessive Partying – I won’t name any specific schools, but oh you wish I would. That sentence didn’t even make sense, and it could be a result of excessive partying. Going out on a Friday and Saturday is all fine and dandy. It leaves Sunday open to nursing a hangover and studying. However, if you start thinking about “Wasted Wednesday,” or “Thirsty Thursday,” (assuming you have a class that meets on Fridays) and the like, you may be partying a bit too much, and it will show in your grades. I remember my I would have loved to go, but he was calling me on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. As I’ve said before, skipping class is basically burning money, so I wasn’t about go out when I had a 9:30AM lecture to go to. We all know alcohol and other substances kill brain cells, but that’s not the central issue. If your whole life becomes about partying, then your GPA will definitely take a nosedive. I’m going to take a wild guess that if your parents are paying for school, they aren’t paying to have you get inebriated 24-7. If you are paying for school by yourself, then you’re just being silly and wasteful. So remember, too much of a good thing can be bad, and it can kill your GPA.
5. Facebook – I never really thought facebook could adversely affect grades, but that was before I got my own account. For some reason, facebook can be really addicting. Many college students already have procrastination issues (that clearly stem from the new found freedom many experience for the first time), and facebook just provides something else to do in lieu of homework. So, some free advice about facebook is to simply be careful. If you start noticing that you’re facebooking 2-3 times longer than your spending studying or doing homework, something may be wrong. It’s great to stay in touch with friends, but don’t do it at the expense of your grades.
6. Halo, Super Smash Brothers, and other video games – I love video games. College students love video games. Unfortunately, video games don’t love your GPA. With Halo 3 being released (and yes, my roommate just got it, and yes, we’ve been playing non-stop Xbox Live), it seems like the distractions never cease. So, again, use the same strategies you use with the RPGs and don’t let your grades take a huge kick in the pants. Super Smash Brothers and other social games are all fun, but if you’re failing out of college, it’s not exactly practical. Take my advice and play sparingly.
7. Too Many Activities – It’s great to be involved. However, being too involved can really hurt your grades. In the film Rushmore, the main character gets terrible grades because he was in too many organizations and never studies. Individually, joining sports teams is great, but if you were to couple it with three to four other student activities, you’d be too busy, and probably insane. Beware if your university has Greek Life, recognize that rushing will take up A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT of your time. If you still want to rush, than that’s great, but don’t fail out for the sake of Kappa Tappa Kegga or some other Sorority/Fraternity.
I have actually run out of things that could kill your GPA. I’m sure there are more, so feel free to comment if you have any additional things to watch out for. The biggest key, I feel, to college is to make great use of time management. A lot of the GPA killers involve things that take up loads of time and don’t really accomplish anything (okay, so you’re saving the world in Halo 3, but in an academic scope, it means nothing). If you follow the motto: work first, fun later, then you may find yourself having a much more successful academic career.
October 18 2007 | College Advice and College Technology and Grades and GPA | 1 Comment »
Desktops are great and all, but most people will tell you that laptops are much better for college. While I use both, and see the advantages of both, here are some reasons why you should choose a laptop over a desktop for your college computer.
Laptop Advantages
1. Mobility – It’s all about mobility these days. Laptops can be taken anywhere on campus with you. You can take them to class in order to take notes. You can carry them to the library to help you study. Not to mention, long road trips or flights can be made shorter by using a laptop to pass the time. Papers, grades, Facebook, AIM, and much more can always be at your fingertips with a laptop. While security can be an issue, there are laptop locks available. Making sure you have a good warranty can also be helpful when it comes to extending the life of your laptop (I.E. it covers accidents, screen cracks, etc). The natural damage that laptops incur can be curtailed by laptop cases. Talking with many college students, the freedom that laptops allow you to have is irreplaceable.
2. Wireless Internet – This kind of springs off the mobility point. Wireless Internet is a big deal; most college campuses are now almost completely wireless-ready. This means you can get on the Internet and do what you need to do almost anywhere. Studying in coffee shops while facebooking and so on is made possible by wireless Internet and laptops with wireless capabilities.
3. How Much Space and Memory Does One Need – If you are running a bunch of demanding games, I still stand by my desktop recommendation. However, for the average college student who will be using the internet for browsing and chatting, and using some type of word processor for papers, maybe even a digital photo program, a laptop provides more than enough power and space. I think I would have filled my girlfriend’s 80GB laptop a long time ago with all my music, videos, photos, and games. However, for the average user, a laptop is just fine. Unless you plan on running several robust programs, memory should be fine, and there is the potential to upgrade.
Conclusion
It’s a strong debate. Desktop users will stand by their power and gaming abilities. Laptop users will insist that mobility is just too convenient. It basically all comes back to preference. Consider what you’ll be using your computer for. Consider what types of things you’ll be putting on your computer. Consider your campus and school and where it may be useful to have a computer. How wireless compatible is your campus? Many campuses have a variety of computer labs, is mobility that important to you? Will you use your computer in class, or just in your room? Everyone’s different, and while many opt for laptops, don’t be afraid to consider the alternative. In any case, a computer is a big investment, especially for the broke college student, so consider the options, the advantages and disadvantages, and I’m sure you’ll be happy with your purchase.
June 17 2007 | College Advice and College Technology | 2 Comments »
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