College Necessities 1989 vs. 2009

I went to college from 1988-1992, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, majoring in Aerospace Engineering. Technology has changed a lot since then and so have student needs at college. I thought it would be fun to compare the needs (and wants) of a college student in 1989 and now in 2009.

1989:

3.5" floppy disks for saving your work from the computer lab

notebooks - lots of them

3 ring binders to organize notes and handouts

graphing calculator

Walkman

Tape recorder (record lectures)

Pens and Pencils

Highlighters

Post-it Notes

Stereo

TV and VCR

Video Game console

Telephone for room

Backpack

Books (leisure and reference)

Planner and Address book

2009:

Flash drive for backup

Laptop with CD/DVD drive and external speakers

Smartphone

Some notebooks and pens

Backpack

That's all.

Think about it! The Smartphone is their phone, Walkman, graphing calculator, note taker, planner and address book, books (eReader), and lecture recorder. The laptop is their note taking tool and planner, DVD player, TV, eReader, reference, stereo, video game console and more. The notebooks and pens are for classes where the laptop doesn't work well for notes (like science and engineering) - however, a tablet PC with handwriting notes software would work for this.

Packing for college is much easier now. No more boxes of books and notebooks, stereo and box of CD's, boxes of VHS tapes, VCR, TV...ugh. Now, one backpack could carry everything but their clothes.

I'm jealous! I remember lugging multiple notebooks and textbooks around and a planner. Lots of floppy disks for my data, and more. And forget trying to organize a party or how to meet up with other students. Cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, and more have made things so much different now.

What are your thoughts?

nextSTEP magazine and site - after high school...

nextSTEP magazine is a great resource for high school students. The magazine itself is not free, although many schools get bulk subscriptions. Their website, http://www.nextstepmagazine.com, does have a lot of free resources for students.

Their tagline is "your life, after high school" and the magazine and web site have advice and information on careers, college planning and more. College search, college planning steps, career descriptions, articles on college life, careers, how to be successful in college, and much more are all on the site.

Our school has a bulk subscription, so the students can pick up a copy in the counselors' offices. Many of the students prefer to just go to the web site. The site has more detailed information than the magazine, along with videos and links to other resources. The site does has all of the articles from the print magazine.

This is a must have resource for high school students.

Zinch.com - Free College service for students

Zinch.com is a free service for students in high school applying to college. Students can connect with over 700 colleges that participate with Zinch, create a profile of themselves on the site for colleges to see, and even get information on financial aid.

Some of my students have used it before and found it easy to use and helpful in their college search and application process.

Egiate - College search and info

Egiate is a site that takes college search a little further. Instead of just having some basic info on a college and a link to the school's web site, Egiate takes things further. It has those basic things, but then adds in better search options, maps, satellite photos of the campus, 3D buildings (if available) and much more.

They are still building the site and working with schools to incorporate more information. Searching can be done by location, major, size, and more and there is information on admissions, majors, students, athletics, and more on each school.

Virtual, LIVE, College Fairs

Not every student can visit every college they want to. Not every college will show up at the local college fair. College fairs can be noisy, crowded, and difficult to navigate. Some students get too nervous to talk to college reps at a fair. So skip them and try a virtual, live college fair instead.

Educationxpo and CollegeWeekLive are two sites that I found out about today. They both have upcoming, live on-line events and both have a large number of colleges participating. What is nice is that college reps will be online live to answer questions from students. There is a lot of information available about each college and the two sites both have other resources and references available on them.

Educationxpo has a live event coming up on November 12th, 2009.

CollegeWeekLive's next live event is November 4-7, 2009.

Take a look around the sites now, share them with others, and register for the FREE events.

Two sites to share with high school students

These two sites have some great tips and advice for high school students.

10 Things I Wish I'd Known in High School

Top 5 Things to Learn Before you go away to College

I will be sharing both with my students. I feel that both give some great, practical advice to students and are well worth the time to share these with them.

College Resources for High School Students

Here are some resources to share with high school students:

The Princeton Review has a great site about colleges, majors, and careers. This site can help students explore career and college options so that they can better plan high school and college.

Unigo is a great resouce for college bound high school students and college students. The site has information on colleges, college admissions, financial aid, college life, tips for success, internships, and more. It is one of those sites that every college-bound, or college student should visit.

I really liked this article entitled "What I'd Wish I Known About My First Days on Campus". It has very practical advice for transitioning into college and surviving your freshman year.