Business Students (esp. bcit b.tech): How useful is a laptop to you?
 

I'm debating whether or not to purchase a laptop for the next year as I finish a degree. The only benefits that I can see are;

1. I can consolidate all of my less-used notes in PDF format and effectively access them anytime I want.
2. I'd have a computer I can use at a moment's notice.

Notes;

• Computers at school shouldn't be too difficult to find if I ever needed to use one.
• I prefer handwriting my notes before they get typed out (if they get typed out at all)
• Out of pocket money is not an issue. I'll be using airmiles (though, to be honest, I'd prefer to use my airmiles for something less utilitarian).

Can anyone here think of a really compelling argument why a laptop would be worth having?

Giant distraction. My resolution for the next semester is not to ever take my laptop and just keep incredibly organized notes instead. It does have its pros, but if you don't have enough self discipline its a giant distraction.
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I had one for first semester and it was alright. In second semester I figured out that it was easier to handwrite my notes because theres all these charts and stuff. Also, I learned more by writing them out than typing them. If you wanted to study off electronic notes, I'm sure you have some friends who will help you out.


oh also the huge distraction part.

Good points. I'll save the miles.

laptop is extremely useful. not for everycourse, but at least half of all courses you get will probably find a laptop necessary in some way

- saves you from printing off slides (for lectures with slides)
- allows you to do word processing, excel, visio, any other comp. related work on the fly (as you eat lunch in a cafe, etc)
- saves you the hassle of going to a library to do computer work midway through the day
- allows you to play with programs as you get lectured on them (like for database courses)

those are only 3 main points but i find youll notice they'll be weighted heavily

I never bothered with a laptop except in cases where I really needed one because its a big distraction. Look around at the people with laptops in your class - most of them are probably on facebook or revscene, not looking at notes.

Its also way easier to organize handwritten notes. Plus you absorb the material more. Your bag is lighter and you don't have to worry about your laptop being stolen. I like to just carry a binder and pen and thats it.

i did not see the use of a laptop in the first 2 years of my 4 year program.
the last 2 had a lot of group meetings, and presentations where a laptop increase my productivity and efficiency.

I would get the laptop HOWEVER, only use it outside of lecture. Its really important for outside of lecture use such as powerpoints/presentations.

Laptop would really depend on the courses you have to take. It'll be hard to effectively utilize a laptop if you had to draw lots of diagrams or write lots of numbers/formulas for courses. However, if it's a course with lots of just written notes, then laptop would come in very handy as you can power type all your notes in your lectures instead of handwriting it.

Lectures laptop was a distraction for me. I handwrite all my notes now which I find really helps me retain a lot of information since some of the notes you have to put into your own words instead of simply transforming what you hear into words into a word document. Then when it comes to studying, again, my hand written notes have worked much better compared to laptop (which, again, becomes a distraction when trying to study).

However, if you're doing a lot of group work where you're going (I was at BCIT before so LOTS of group work) to school a laptop is going to make your life a lot easier since you won't need to hunt for a computer every single time. With a laptop meetings were easy to organize and projects were a lot easier to work on since all we would need is a big table and power outlets and off we went. Not to mention when you're researching on your own computer its easier for you to organize all your work/findings instead of constantly saving on a flashdrive or emailing it out.

I had a laptop my 1st year, and it was a terrible distraction. Like many people here, I did all my note taking hand written and it was more efficient that way.

The only use I had with it was presentations and group projects.
imo waste of money... in lectures.

Solutions:
Stay off the internet during lecture.
Use digicam to take picture of the graph/whatever the prof throws on the board/projector.

I write slow, so having a laptop through post-secondary was a huge help to me.

don't do it lol, taking notes by hand is much better than doing it with a laptop. like everybody else said above, a laptop is your worst friend if you want to do well. If the prof has slides you can download, print them out and take notes on them instead.