Essential Electronics for the College-Bound

There are a few electronic devices that are essential to college students no matter what their field of study. These gadgets will make classes, relaxation, and organization easier.

Does it compute?

The student's first crucial investment is a good laptop. What you spend will depend on what sort of software you'll be using. You'll need a computer no more than two or three years old to be compatible with the new software that at least one of your professors will require you to buy.

Purchase a laptop with a built-in wireless connection. If it's too late for that, make certain that you get a good wireless card. Wireless fidelity or "wi-fi" is an absolute requirement for connectivity. It makes your laptop portable for not only word processing and solitaire games but for surfing the web, e-mailing your professors, and earning some spending money reading and posting on-line. Look for a certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance when you buy your equipment.

Drive It Home

Students will need an external hard drive to keep on the desk in their dorm room or apartment. This should be used to back up the hard drive of your laptop regularly, just in case. You can also use it to store things like old files, pictures, and music that you don't need cluttering your internal hard drive during every-day use.

It will be helpful to invest in at least one small jump or flash drive that will plug into the USB ports on your laptop and on other computers. It's far more convenient than carrying your laptop about when all you want to do is print your 25-page term paper at Kinko's or the library. They are also far less expensive to replace, should they get dropped or rained on.

Groove to the Beat

Another electronic gadget that most college students could not do without is an mp3 player. You'll need speakers for your home, earphones for wandering around campus and exercising, and cables for connecting it to the external hard drive through your laptop. Listening to music while studying can help to block out so many of the distractions of college life, like your roommate inviting you to a great party or that it's time to go to eat or to sleep.

To save money, you can opt for a very small-capacity mp3 player with an expansion slot. You can then extend the space available with memory cards as you can afford them. Save different playlists or mixes on each card and listen to what suits your mood rather than working your way through 40 gigabytes of files.

Give Us a Ring

Finally, no student's life is complete without a cellular phone. At the very least you'll want one for calling the local pizza place during an all-night study session. In addition, cell phones work well as alarm clocks, personal phone books, and cute accessories. Think of all the money you can save on these other items, assuming that you can use your cell phone responsibly enough to avoid spending $300 a month "texting" that cute person in your creative writing class or biology lab.

These items will set you back $1,500 or more, unless you already have a few. If you don't, ask for some of them as graduation gifts. All of these electronics can serve multiple functions and work together to cover your needs. Consider these gadgets to be investments in your future, much as college is a base for your adulthood.