I'm Justin White and a sophomore in Computer Engineering. First off, congratulations on your acceptance into the College of Engineering here at NC State! These past two years have been a challenging and rewarding experience for me, and I want to reassure you that you have made an excellent choice. In addition to being an engineering student, I am also a participant in the NC State Laptop Initiative myself.
I already own a laptop. Why should I participate in the Laptop Initiative?
I'll use my experience with a laptop section of CSC116, an introductory course to JAVA, as an example of the advantages laptop sections offer. Instead of just learning about how to use certain programming techniques in theory in lecture and then actually applying them in code a few days later in lab, we would do both at the same time. To me, this helped me understand the material much more. There was no longer this disconnection between learning something in theory and using it in practice. Also, the most difficult part of programming for me is actually writing those first lines of code, and since I was right there in class the professor and TAs were able to help. One other advantage this laptop section offered me was a smaller class size compared to the regular sections.
Do I have to buy a laptop from NC State?
You do not have to buy a laptop from the NC State bookstore or the Apple and Dell websites for NCSU students. The laptops listed in the side-by-side comparison are models available to you for purchase with discounts. However, if you prefer a brand other than the ones recommended by SOC, or you already own a laptop, just make sure it meets the minimum hardware requirements and has Microsoft Windows XP Pro installed. I purchased my laptop from the bookstore. I ordered an IBM T40p in early May of 2003 and put down a deposit, and then I paid the remaining balance during the tax-free weekend. I saved $150 in taxes alone. As for the discount, I remember building the exact laptop on IBM's website that I bought at the bookstore, and the price was $1500 more on the website. I bought this particular model and brand after reading several magazines, including Consumer Reports, and user reviews because I believed (and still believe) that it will last me all 4 years I'm here at NC State. I encourage you to do the same research when deciding on the brand and model you want. Although magazine reviews give you an idea of how well the system performs, its the actual user reviews that tell you how reliable a machine is. Magazine reviewers only have a computer for a week or so, but its the users that have to deal with quality control issues, customer support, etc. Perform searches on your favorite search engine. Use sites such as Epinions and C-Net. Research and see what percentage of new laptops a certain brand produces have to be returned within one year. Look for how satisfied people are with the support they receive. Even look at the surveys completed by current Laptop Initiative participants (link coming soon) . A laptop computer is a major purchase, so I advise you to take the time to do your research.
Do I have to take all of the laptop classes?
No, you are not required to take any laptop section of a class. Participating in the Laptop Initiative simply gives you a special status when you go to register for classes. You are allowed (not forced) to sign up for classes with an "LT" restriction, while non-participants cannot register for them. In other words, participating in the Laptop Initiative simply gives you more options. Personally, I have signed up for every laptop section available to me, even if it meant rearranging my whole schedule. In fact, when you register for classes during summer orientation, the College of Engineering has already pre-registered you for your fall semester classes. You are already pre-registered for the laptop sections of E115 and E101, along with some other classes.
Will the Laptop Initiative interfere with the Scholars or Honors programs?
No. The Scholars and Honors programs require you to take a certain number of honors classes before you graduate. Therefore, if you would rather take an honors section of a class rather than the laptop section, then go right ahead. I'm in the Scholars program myself, and my workload is no different from anyone else's.
Which would you prefer to have on campus? A laptop or a desktop?
Personally, I couldn't imagine my life on campus without a laptop computer. Here are some of the reasons I prefer having a laptop computer:
What is your opinion of the laptop classes you've taken? Do laptop sections offer any advantage over regular sections?
I have taken laptop sections of E101, E115, CSC116, CSC216, MA241, and MA242 so far at NC State. From my experience, the laptop sections have smaller class sizes and are a lot more student-interactive instead of just primarily lecture-based. I made friends in E101 the fall semester of my freshman year that I still see today, over a year later. Also, having people to study and work with is critical for success in a lot of classes, and today I study with the same people I met my freshman year in the laptop classes I took. Had it not been for the Laptop Initiative, I probably would have never met these people. As for the classes themselves, here are the advantages I have seen so far with the Laptop Initiative:
By now you've taken all of the laptop classes you can. Is it still worth it to have a laptop?
Like I mentioned before, I could not imagine being a college student without a laptop. Yet, even though I'm done with all of the laptop courses, I still take my laptop to some of my classes. For instance, in ECE220 we have lectures on Matlab some days. The day before these Matlab lectures the professor will tell those of us that have laptops to bring them if we want to. Therefore, when she's typing commands into Matlab the next day, I'm right there typing them into my computer myself. I've also found that typing on a laptop is a great way to take notes when it comes to most humanities classes, but I would advise against it with any class that uses symbols or graphs (calculus, economics, most engineering classes) because a person tends to spend more attention on typing rather than on the actual material.
Whenever I get together with people to work on assignments, we still bring our laptops. I'm in Computer Engineering myself, so I have a lot of programming and logic design work to do that requires a computer. When you start the courses for your major, you might find yourself having to do 10-20 page lab reports. I still go outside whenever I can to do these (I guess being outside on a nice day makes a 20-page lab report a little less painful of a thing to do). Whenever I go home for the weekend or on a vacation, I always take my laptop with me because I always seem to have work to do. Personally, to me, I'd rather work outside, in my room, or even at home on homework instead of in a computer lab. By participating in the Laptop Initiative I now know just how little I need to depend on labs to get work done, and I've formed some great study groups that I still meet with even to this day.
Why don't the laptops provided by NC State come preinstalled with all of the software I'll need? Or at least why don't you sell a CD that has this software?
NC State does not want to make students buy expensive software that they don't need. Theoretically, you can be a successful student at NC State and not own a personal computer. Every piece of software an engineering student will need is provided in the EOS computer labs. The one problem with EOS labs is that you cannot install any of your own software on them, even if it is a special program that came with a textbook that you need to use. However, by owning a computer, students can install their own programs and access most of the programs available on the UNIX/Linux lab machines from home using a combination of utilities like F-Secure and X-Win32. This works just fine for some students, but others prefer to have the actual pieces of software on their computer. Universities that offer all-inclusive installation CDs often charge between $400 and $600 for them. Some students might already have certain pieces of software such as Microsoft Office, so buying an all-inclusive CD would force them to buy the same product again. Also, students typically buy these CDs their freshman year, and by the time they actually use a particular application their senior year, there is a good chance that a newer version is already out. Because of these reasons, NC State does not bundle software. Instead, if a student needs Microsoft Office 2003 Professional and nothing else, then s/he can go to the bookstore and pay $69 for software that normally costs around $360. Personally, I have purchased Microsoft Office 2003, Maple 9, and Matlab 7, and that is all the software I need as a computer engineering student right now.
In previous years, IBM and Dell laptops ordered through the university came with a suite of utilities preinstalled, such as F-Secure, X-Win32, Wolfcall, etc. Starting in the Fall of 2004, Student-Owned Computing no longer images student laptops with this suite installed. All of the utilities are still free of charge to NC State students, but now the students actually install them themselves in E115. When I heard about this change, it made me think of the fisherman's parable. Students can receive their laptops with preinstalled software and be ok until it messes up or becomes out of date, or they can be taught how to install them themselves and therefore become more self-sufficient.
Should I buy the extended warranty? How about accidental insurance?
When I bought my IBM Thinkpad T40p in August of 2003, I had (and still have) every intention of keeping it all 4 years I am here at NC State. I personally think it was worth it to pay for an additional year of warranty to make it a total of 4 years. My fear was something going wrong with it in the middle of my senior year, so buying the extra year of warranty gives me a comfortable feeling. As far as the accidental insurance is concerned, I think it is worth while also. As a Laptop Initiative participant, you will carry around your laptop a lot. No matter how careful you are, accidents do happen. One of my friends cracked his LCD screen and had to pay $900 to get it replaced.
What kind of laptop case should I buy?
Although the crime here is low, NC State is still a public campus and therefore does not have a gate to keep the bad people out. In college, you'll find yourself studying at all hours of the night. There have been plenty of times that I studied at DH Hill library until 3am before I walked back to my dorm. If you are walking around at that time of the night with a regular laptop case on your shoulder, you're asking to be victimized. I recommend getting a book bag or messenger bag that has a padded laptop compartment. By having a laptop case that doesn't look like a laptop case, you definitely decrease your chances of theft.
