What do we need a laptop for in med school?

[joker]

I know a lot of people are buying laptops for med school, but I was just wondering...what do we actually need one for? I'm going to be at Penn next year, and I have no clue if they even have online stuff that I'd like to be able to access outside of my room in my apartment (where my desktop will be).

I mean, are you guys actually going to carry your laptop to school each day and use it after class to study? If so, what kinds of materials are online? Sorry for the dum questions, just wanted to see what all your thoughts were....

I was thinking about just getting an LCD monitor to save deskspace instead...

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[Alexander99]

All I know is that some schools have a lot of your study material (notes, quizzes, etc) online. I'm sure you could just use the school computers to access the stuff but then you have to risk having to wait to use one if there aren't enough.

Most schools have a computer ownership requirement so it's safe to say they expect to be online quite a bit. If that's the case, for someone like me who can't study at home, it's convenient to have a laptop you can bring to school.

 

[meanderson]

Most schools are going to put a lot of path/histo slides online for you study over for the exams. Some schools are not using microscopes as much for histo. You can probably access these from your school library comps though......it's not like your school is going to come around and do a check to make sure you have your own computer. Just make sure you have access(friend, school, etc) to a computer that can run the program with your school's images.....

 

[DoctorDoom]

Hope this helps a bit too:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=113794

I bought a laptop instead of a desktop, some of the students might be doing that, rather than buying a laptop in addition to their desktop. I found it a lot more convenient for working in class and after class.

Best bet is to talk to a few Penn students and see what they have access to and how they use those resources, then adjust according to your study habits.

 

[BubbleBobble]

I was thinking about using a laptop to take notes in class. I figure that in college, all of my classes are sufficiently diverse that if I lose my notes (which I do), then it probably won't matter the next quarter. However, since med school classes are more related, it will be helpful to have all of my notes in one place.

Someone please tell me if this is a bad idea, and good ol' paper is the way to go.

 

[SoulRFlare]

Originally posted by BubbleBobble
I was thinking about using a laptop to take notes in class. I figure that in college, all of my classes are sufficiently diverse that if I lose my notes (which I do), then it probably won't matter the next quarter. However, since med school classes are more related, it will be helpful to have all of my notes in one place.

Someone please tell me if this is a bad idea, and good ol' paper is the way to go.

you can type that fast? wow...I wish i could

 

[leviathan]

Originally posted by SoulRFlare
you can type that fast? wow...I wish i could

Personally, I type much faster (and neater, I should say) than my hand writing. I'm considering selling my desktop and getting a laptop for both home and school use.

 

[Mr Reddly]

A bunch of the schools have wireless internet access. That makes the laptop MUCH more convienient... At Davis, they were surfing the web during Class. When I interviewed there and sat in on classes, I sat in the back row. The student next to me was looking at the Kings (basketball) web site during most of the class time. ... Go figure.

As for getting a laptop instead of a desktop... I would say get try to have both if possible. At home, the desktop is much better ergonimically... unless you ADD things to the laptop (keyboard, mouse, CRT...which makes it more like a desktop). But, the laptop can be very convienient on the go. My advice, the lighter the better... They get heavy REALLY fast. And, look at the online reviews BEFORE you buy. Mine was an impulse buy. I read the reviews after, and discovered that Yep, it is loud, and Nope, it doesn't have USB 2.0 (even though it has 802.11G... go fig). But trust me on the lightness. De lighter De better. I even like them smaller than larger.

 

[ironey]

Being at an institution with wireless in every building, I can tell you exactly what we use our computers for during lecture:

Online Crosswords
Check email
Did I win that thing on ebay?
A new pair of shoes would be nice, what's new at Nordstrom?
E-mail: so-and-so, do you know a seven letter Asian city that starts with an "E"?
Read SDN


Well, there is also the fact that all (most) of our lectures are posted as powerpoints online. Sometimes it's easier to take notes on the slides and then you have a better idea of what the prof was getting at. Also, our histology slides are online so computers are indispensible in lab as the website has explanations and labels. I'd say that a third of our class takes notes on their computers and about 80% have laptops that they use at school.

 

[BubbleBobble]

Originally posted by leviathan
Personally, I type much faster (and neater, I should say) than my hand writing. I'm considering selling my desktop and getting a laptop for both home and school use.

I can type faster than I can write too, but what I'm afraid of is that I can draw *a whole lot faster* on paper than I can on the computer. So I'm not quite sure what to do if my lecture notes involve graphs/charts/structures - probably keep a notebook on hand for quick sketches.

 

[Mr Reddly]

Originally posted by BubbleBobble
I can type faster than I can write too, but what I'm afraid of is that I can draw *a whole lot faster* on paper than I can on the computer. So I'm not quite sure what to do if my lecture notes involve graphs/charts/structures - probably keep a notebook on hand for quick sketches.

Get a tablet!
Wacom Intuos.

I have a satchel that I keep my laptop in. The tablet fits right in there next to the laptop.

 

[Wednesday]

It's going to depend on your school, but I wouldn't be able to take notes into a laptop. We are supplied with a big syllabus (which is actually more lecture notes/textbook like) which most people just annotate during the lecture. Our PPTs are often online, but not until after the lecture is over.

If you're going to study somewhere other than home, a laptop would be really useful I would think. Lots of schools have wireless networks set up. Of course, it might be more condusive to studying if you actually have to get up from your chair to surf SDN.

 

[RLMD]

My school required everyone to buy toshiba tablet laptops as part of our tuition and fees. Most people would have preferred to spend the money on something else ($2500) but we can all find some use for them. Almost all of our lectures have powerpoints that are available before lecture, so you can type notes on the powerpoint file or type your own notes in a word file. I almost always type my notes right there in lecture since our syllabus is usually nothing more than an outline. The tablet part of the laptop is good if you need to draw something in the lecture that your professor puts up on a slide or transparency.
If your school requires you to buy a laptop, it probably is for a good reason and I guess you should make the best of use of it.

 

[ericdamiansean]

there are alot of medical programs in CD forms..reference text

most universities these days have online databases so it's good if you have a notebook or a desktop.

personally, I think having a notebook's better because you can carry it around, and if Penn's wireless...oh..heaven

I use a desktop and am planning on getting a palm...really really really soon...

 

[BubbleBobble]

Originally posted by Mr Reddly
Get a tablet!

I've considered a tablet. I don't think it would be exactly what I want, since most tablets are beyond my budget ($1200) and don't have the battery life (4+ hours) that I'd like.