My grandparents bought me a small fridge for graduation, and I appreciated it tremendously; but before you buy, check on what the college provides. My daughter has her "serious" list down to two schools, and one of them provides a micro-fridge in the room. So I won't buy for her 'til I know which school she's going to attend. While I am the Kindle's biggest fan, it is MOST useful for leisure reading. I don't like to take it to church because it's hard to flip back and forth between chapters. I don't like cookbooks because the recipes are not always completely on the same page. And textbooks are going to be kind of like that: Sidebars and boxes aren't necessarily going to print on the right pages.
At one of our college visits I asked about the direction of electronic textbooks, and the person to whom I spoke said they're still 5-7 years away from being "a thing". Is this person right? I don't know. I don't even know who he was, but I wouldn't count on an e-reader taking the place of paper textbooks for TODAY's college student.Be careful about that. An uber-thrifty friend of mine said that when her son's college materials arrived in the mail, one of the things he received was an offer to buy a laptop through the college. She said at first glance it looked like a good deal: It's a good laptop, it'd have been waiting in his room when he arrived, and it could be added to his tuition bill. But, being uber-thrifty, she decided to compare the price at
Best Buy before she bought it. She said the SAME LAPTOP was roughly 60% of the cost at Best Buy, and that wasn't even on sale. Obviously, she didn't buy from the school.
Same friend also recommends strongly that you buy Best Buy's insurance on anything electronic that's going to be used by kids. While I don't often buy specialized insurance like that, I think it'd be worthwhile for a college laptop, which'll be toted around in a bookbag, left on the desk near drinks, etc.
And, of course, while you're buying the laptop, definitely spend another $20 for a laptop cable lock. A laptop is genuinely a necessity for today's college student, and having a computer stolen -- along with your papers, notes, etc. -- would be more than a financial concern.Something we've heard at Open Houses for both of my daughter's top-pick colleges: At orientation they're required to "register" their phones with the university so that the college can send messages (emergency or otherwise) to ALL the students easily. One of her possibilities is in a snowy area, and this year they actually cancelled classes a couple days -- they informed students via text messaging. Her other possibility is near the beach, and every year or so they're evacuated because of a hurricane. Again, they use texting to reach ALL students.
At another school, which my daughter ended up not liking, all students are required to have a Smart Phone -- there were some specific requirements, but I don't remember them. Apparently the teachers use them to take role in classes. Don't ask me how.
His school also had the cell phone notification system. They used it for weather but also for other safety issues that may have come up. Also, his school took out all the phones in the dorms and stopped giving kids a campus phone number-his freshman year was the first year they did that. No one was using the phones because they all had cell phones.
