Required Laptop Computer

[JellyBean]

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The medical school I will be attending this fall requires you to buy a Gateway laptop computer before class starts. Starting this year all the tests are computer based to help prepare you for Boards. I was just wondering how many other schools also require this. Also, what type (brandname) of computers do other schools require and the cost. (The one that I have to get is over $3000)


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[This message has been edited by JellyBean (edited 08-01-2000).]

 

[Cameron]

Which medical schoool will you be attending?

 

[NCHoosier]

UNC asks you to purchase an IBM thinkpad of their designation. It runs about $3000 as well -

I think the computer policy applies to the entire university, not just the medical school.

Cheers!

 

[WingZero]

I remember when I was interviewing at Duke, the students mentioned the laptop (Dell brand as I recall) requirement and were pretty pissed about it. I think the cost was over $1500 a year (for two years), at the end of which they had the option of buying it for like $200. Bottom line is, whenever the school requires you to buy their laptops, you are being overcharged for an underpowered machine. I can guarantee that whatever Gateway machine they give you for $3000, you can take that exact configuration to gateway's online store site and it will quote you a price at least several hundred dollars cheaper. It does suck, I'm sorry to say... Perhaps the only redeeming value (at least in Duke's case) is that all the anatomy and other med software is free and preloaded on the laptops. Then again, that's just another way to force you to buy the laptops because from what I was told, the only way you can get support and help with the software is if you have it on one of Duke's laptops. The cool thing is that you can bring your laptop into their new classroom and plug it into one of the ethernet jacks at each seat. Nothing like playing a good game of Quake 3 with your fellow classmates during a boring lecture

Full disclosure - I did NOT get into Duke and am not overly bitter about it

 

[Socceroo4ever]

Funny thing to note! Wake Forest University actually GIVES you a laptop... every two years of schooling! After two years, they take back the first one they gave you and replace it with the most up-to-date version available. And when you graduate... ta-da!!! A brand new laptop computer as a graduation present from your friendly Wake Forest teaching staff. That's grand! I wish some of these other private schools would chip in an incentive like that.

 

[baylor21]

What is the point of having laptop computers during the med school lectures?

Don't you have to draw pictures of biochemical pathways, molecular structures, diagrams, etc?

Do the laptops come embedded with software that allows you to instantly draw pictures along with typing text?

I dont think notes from lecture would help that much if you cant draw diagrams or anything.

By the way, I'm only premed, so I'm not sure what the actual lecture style in med schools is, I'm just curious.

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[WingZero]

I agree with Baylor21 - laptops for lectures are absolutely useless. Drawing diagrams on a standard laptop is impossible, unless you want to use MSPaint and use your mouse to draw, ending up with a picture that looks like it came from a three year old while taking three times as long than if you did it on paper. Most schools give you a lecture outline or notes, the point being that you can actually LISTEN to a lecture rather than trying frantically to take notes. Granted, you might be able to type faster on a laptop, but its more of a distraction than just a notepad and a pen. Besides, editing your notes on a laptop during a lecture is much more difficult than on paper, where you can just write little notes in the margin or have arrows pointing to different sections and small diagrams/charts in the margins etc. drawn anywhere on the page.

This is just yet another example of using technology simply "because you can", rather than because it actually makes things better, kind of like back in the day when computers starting coming out with many fonts, and people typed their reports using 20 different fonts, just because they could

[This message has been edited by WingZero (edited 08-02-2000).]

 

[DocGibby]

Suddenly, that $2200 Dell I just ordered sounds like a steal.

Hey Soccer,

How much extra tuition do you have to pay in order to cover that rather "generous" perk you recieve at Wake Forest?