General

[quote=Msjazz]I will try going to class and taking notes for 1-2 weeks without laptop and see how that works out... My friend that is in engineering personally advised me to get a laptop because the amount of notes I need to take is tremendous especially if I am a slow ass writer. Thanks for the suggestion though.[/quote]

Well from my experience, the stuff you do in lectures for engineering is hard to take note on a laptop. For example, if the professor is going over sample examples for Calculus, you can't do that on a laptop. If you need to draw vector diagrams for Physics, you can't do that on a laptop.

Usually the professor would post the notes online too, so you can catch up on any notes you missed, but I recommend using a notebook and pen.

In my opinion, a laptop would be best for Arts students whose lecture notes are just a slideshow.

[quote=NoobCake]Telling you this now, taking notes on a laptop will NOT help you. You will get easily distracted and go on Facebook, Youtube, etc. I see many people just watching videos on their laptops. Unless you're naturally smart, you're digging your own grave.

I recommend the ol' paper notebook and pen and coffee to help you stay focus on what the professor is teaching.

Source: 2nd year Biomedical Engineering student.[/quote]
I will try going to class and taking notes for 1-2 weeks without laptop and see how that works out... My friend that is in engineering personally advised me to get a laptop because the amount of notes I need to take is tremendous especially if I am a slow ass writer. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Telling you this now, taking notes on a laptop will NOT help you. You will get easily distracted and go on Facebook, Youtube, etc. I see many people just watching videos on their laptops. Unless you're naturally smart, you're digging your own grave.

I recommend the ol' paper notebook and pen and coffee to help you stay focus on what the professor is teaching.

Source: 2nd year Biomedical Engineering student.

If you aren't planning on using your laptop for gaming or video editing, and if all you need is something to takes notes, do some basic web browsing, and maybe type up papers here and there, then I'd suggest looking for something that has a long battery life (8+ hours would be ideal). Don't worry about the specs like memory or processing power since you won't need it.

I suggest going to amazon, best buy, or any other computer store and actually search for a laptop yourself. There are plenty of $300 laptops available, just read reviews and see which one will work best for you.

[quote=Avatar]Just go to best buy and ask them to show you their engineering laptop section I'm sure they will help you out.[/quote]

they also offer decent laptops in the liberal arts laptop section as well. be sure to check it out.
(i'm jk best buy is ripoff compare to online retailers. don't really go there lol)

Just go to best buy and ask them to show you their engineering laptop section I'm sure they will help you out.

[quote=Fleyx]It's going to be hard finding a laptop that would work engineering programs (well depending on which engineering) with that price range.[/quote]

Im not specifically buying it to use for engineering programs, the school already has the programs that I can use anytime. The reason why I'm getting the laptop is because so that I can take notes and record the lecture. I am slow writer, so I'm afraid I might miss out on something important.

It's going to be hard finding a laptop that would work engineering programs (well depending on which engineering) with that price range.

Anything with at least i5 processor and 8 gigs of ram should do you fine.

A fairly used MacBook Air will do you just fine.