Today’s market is saturated with every kind of technological gizmo imaginable, and it can be tough for high school and college students alike to discern what’s actually useful. AdmitSee intern Andy, a student at the William Penn Charter School, lists 10 tech gadgets that are very useful for students, both for academics and for life in general.
1. Some sort of fitness tracker band
Whether it be Jawbone’s UP24, the Fitbit, or Nike’s Fuel Band, you’re definitely going to want to impress your friends, parents, and significant other by showing off how much you’ve walked around campus and how many calories you’ve burned going from your dorm to the dining hall (and then occasionally, out to other places, like class ;) ). From personal experience, I recommend the UP24 band: the system is very easy to use and the band looks very professional compared to other, clunky-looking options.
2. Smartphone
Let’s face it. Even your parents know how to text these days. If you still have a flip phone, the 90’s and early 2000’s are definitely calling you right now as you read this post: they want their phone back! What with the newly released iPhone 6 hot in the market and the Nexus 6 scheduled for release in November, I highly suggest you get some sort of smartphone: Trust me, your life will be so much better.
3. E-reader or tablet
Who wants to carry 50 lbs of textbooks in their bag? If your professors or teachers allow it, you should opt for an e-version of all your course books. Your back (and bank account—ebooks are cheaper than hardbound books!) will thank you.
4. Laptop
Taking paper notes is slow, and almost all professors require assignments to be word processed nowadays, anyways. Nuff’ Said.
5. Spotify Premium
It’s not necessarily a tech gadget but if you’re like me, you can’t study in absolute silence. So please, do yourself some good by getting Spotify premium—having unlimited, uninterrupted music available at your fingertips 24/7 is definitely worth the nominal monthly fee.
6. Google Glass (if you can afford it)
Google Glass will revolutionize your world… if you can afford it. And if you can afford the $1,500 price tag, it’s so, so worth it. Details in the link below.
7. Bluetooth tracking device for your keys, wallet, etc
How many times have you lost your ID card, wallet, keys somewhere in your house or dorm? You can now get a thin, easily movable bluetooth tracker, like the Button trackr or the wallet trackr, which easily clips on to keys or your wallet and allows you to locate them via the smartphone you bought back in number 2. Nobody wants to be the kid who loses the lanyard with his keys and ID during the 2nd week of school!
8. Power Bank
With the terrible battery life of smartphones, you should definitely purchase a power bank of some sort to keep all your electronics charged. I keep a 12,000 mAh power bank with me at all times in case my iPhone goes dead while riding the subway.
9. DSLR (if you’re into photography)
If you like photography, you should opt to purchase a DSLR. While smartphone cameras may be good and certainly convenient, a top-notch DSLRs will always come out on top when it comes to pure photographic quality.
10. Alarm clock
For those days where you wish the snooze button stopped time. You can easily set an alarm on your smartphone, as the article below describes. I recommend investing in a secondary, old-school battery-operated alarm as well, however—and placing it somewhere far away from your bed. When you’re up studying until 4am for a 9am midterm, sometimes one alarm just isn’t enough.
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