Laptops?

[krevelli]

How do laptops figure into the equation for you guys? What kind do you have? Use them in class, for studying, what?

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[orion1978]

Besides our entire curriculum being online, I live and die by my computer. It is usually used for taking notes and editing them for study. We also use them extensively for histology and "non lecture activities"...

Buy one--makes life alot easier. Ours was bought by our school and the computer services department is absolutely fantastic. For example, we could throw our computer out the window and have it replaced free (one time only, though). We also comp services toll-free and pager numbers should we have problems. Great team...

 

[Buck Strong]

That's hot...my notebook is slowly dying a painful death. How about you "throw" your laptop out your window to me, and get yourself a new one. There will be a bag of small unmarked non-consecutive bills in your mailbox.

 

[nutmegs]

I bought a good laptop as a replacement for my desktop. my school has wireless internet and I put a wireless router in my apartment. best moves EVER.

I have a dell inspiron with the centrino thing. I use it at school, in class, in the library, at the bookstores I study at, in my room, in the living room, in the car... you get the picture.

 

[beanbean]

I can not imagine med school without my laptop! All of our syllabus, lecture slides and lecture mp3 files are online. We have wireless in the classrooms and PBL sessions with immediate access to on-line reference material is great. I have an extenisive filing system for all of my course materials and it is wonderful not to have to deal with tons and tons of paper.

 

[kaos]

We were made to buy freaking IBM ThinkPad T40s. I wanted a Dell Inspiron!! Lucky you, Nutmeg!

 

[nutmegs]

Originally posted by kaos
We were made to buy freaking IBM ThinkPad T40s. I wanted a Dell Inspiron!! Lucky you, Nutmeg!

wow. did they give a reason for that? seems a bit odd to have a brand requirement like that. I can see requiring a laptop, or a tablet, but... sorry to hear it.

 

[dara678]

Would you say that a laptop is absolutely necessary? I have a good desktop that works fine, so I was wondering if it's a good idea to splurge and buy another computer ...

 

[ivyleague22ny]

I just finished my 1st semester of medical school taking
Anatomy, Histology, Biochem/Molecular Cell Bio, Genetics, and Nutrition and did fine WITHOUT owning a personal computer.

But we have a 24-hour computer room reserved only for med school students that is never really busy except between classes so when I need to watch lectures online, write a paper, or study histo slides, I just went to the computer lab and got what I needed to get done. It probably also helped that I only lived a few blocks from campus.

I had a laptop in undergrad (of course it's obsolete now for me to even attemp to use) but I honestly just wasted a lot of time checking e-mail or downloading music and stuff, so it was actually better that I didn't own a laptop now since I only use a computer when I need to use it for school.

It really depends on how disciplined you are at studying and not being distracted by the many 'activities' that a laptop would offer esp if you get wireless internet.

When I see others studying at the computer lab, it forces me to stay focussed and study rather than goof around.



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Univ. of Minnesota Medical School MS-1

 

[Mr.Tweed]

I'm starting next fall, and I think that I will pass on buying a laptop. Of course it will depend on how plugged-in my school is (I don't have a good feel for that yet). But I think that it would be too distracting.

 

[nuclearrabbit77]

i'd recommend getting a light laptop. most likely all you'll be using it for is viewing slides off powerpoint or adobe pdf.....i own a laptop but i never use it since it weighs a ton.

 

[gwyn779]

Originally posted by dara678
Would you say that a laptop is absolutely necessary? I have a good desktop that works fine, so I was wondering if it's a good idea to splurge and buy another computer ...

When I started I decided that upgrading my desktop and getting a nice PDA would be cheaper than getting a laptop but still sufficient for what I wanted to do. Basically, I can carry around/edit word, excel, and powerpoint files for studying, as well as multiple review books on my PDA. I'd say splurge and buy a nice PDA (palm's tungsten t3 for example is great for looking at excel and powerpoint files), which will cost you 1/4 the price of a new laptop.

 

[UCLAMAN]

Originally posted by krevelli
How do laptops figure into the equation for you guys? What kind do you have? Use them in class, for studying, what?

I'd say it depends on the school you go to.

Our pdf and powerpoint lectures are posted online. Some people take notes on them with their laptops.

But aside from printing lectures out(which one could do at the library anyways) I would say a laptop isnt essential at NU.