Melvin James

5 Must-Have Back to School Gadgets for College Student

Back to school time again, what are the must-have gadgets for next academic year? The article will give you 5 items at the entry level to help the student well packed for studying on campus and save some money for text books.

With the calendar flipping to end of August, it is the back to school time again. Thus a shopping list should be ready for the next school year. It used to be a few new pencils, pens, notebooks and even a lunch box. However, such old school supplies cannot satisfy today's young teenagers, especially college students. Here I will bring you some electronic gadgets that will prepare a college student for a good academic life. We looked for items with educational connection that would fit a student budget. Most of them in the article are entry level.

Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Office 2007 is a must-have for creating presentations and documents not for college student but for everyone. However some may find that it is too expensive. Fortunately, college students can buy Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate at $59.95 for almost 91 percent off. As long as they provide a valid e-mail address at an educational institution ending with the domain suffix .EDU and a proof of enrollment in at least 0.5 course credits. For incoming freshmen, if you can't wait until your .edu email address goes live, I recommend you MS Office 2007 Home and Student for less than $100; it has fewer features but is still cheaper than at retail.

PDF to Word Converter
College students often come across PDF format, like papers from academic journals to quote and E-books for using the content or an amazing picture, or CV to edit for some modification. How to deal with read-only PDF files? Personally, I will not recommend the famous adobe acrobat, as it is too expensive to afford. And it doesn't provide free technical support.

Here is an alternative: AnyBizSoft PDF to Word Converter. It offers the easiest way to convert PDF to  word, with all the text content, page layouts, images and text hyperlinks preserved. It also supports conversion of encrypted PDF files. Howtogeek.com gave it 4 stars. In the back-to-school season, it offers 40% discount with the price of only $17.95 to get a formal version of AnyBizSoft PDF to Word Converter 2.0 until September 20th.

Laptop
"You can't go to college without a computer, and anymore that means a laptop," said Ms. Gooch, the Best Buy manager. Here you may see the importance of a laptop. Laptop is a helper of today’s student with essay writing, online learning, and project making.

However, which one is the best choice? Editor of CNET gives an answer as the entry level of laptop-- Dell i1545-012B. The reasons are as follows: a 2.0GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor; 2 GB of RAM; 160 GB hard drive, charges $429. The processor is the high light, which makes it as one of the mainstream laptops under $500. You may also check Asus' K50IJ-RX05, with a bigger hard drive, more RAM, and a few other features for about $70 more.

Flash Drive
Now, whether you have a laptop, or you are relying on an on-campus computer lab, a flash drive will be essential for storing your own files and sharing them with others. Data backup from time to time is a good habit before it too late to find them. A thumb drive makes it indispensable for working on projects in groups, and for moving from one computer to another doing research and writing. The Kingston 2GB Data Traveler USB Flash Drive is a simple and affordable way to transfer electronic information to different places quickly. The entry-level versions cost less than $15 each.

Digital Camera
Students will want to preserve some important memories of their college days, and a digital camera has become a must to capture the precious moments. An inexpensive one will fit most of daily requirements. Canon' SD 1200is is a stylish, easy to use pocket camera. 3x optical zoom and 2.5 inch LCD, it is enough for capturing shots of friends. This one is under $200.

Hope that my back to school recommendations will help you students a successful academic year.

Article Tags: College Student, Office 2007

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