No

Device choice has largely been personal preference in our kids' experiences at 3 different colleges. None of our have used iPads. Some of their friends do. (Per above comment, neither did our engineering student. Again, personal preference.)

Anonymous wrote:I know we need to get our kid a laptop, but would an iPad also be helpful? Do kids take laptops to class or would the iPad be better for that?

parent of Engineering student at an ivy: the engineers and other stem majors use ipad with stylus for note taking as it is better for formula writing and diagrams(ie orgo) per DC. They also have a Mac Air that the school suggested. About 1/3 picked the PC the school suggested, 2/3 picked the Mac, and most have an iPad and stylus in addition. No one uses the iPad as the sole device.

Anonymous wrote:Yes my kid uses her iPad to take notes when allowed. She does of course also have a laptop.

+1 Got the iPad for a study abroad trip to cut down on weight and bulk. Still uses it now in combo with laptop.

Yes my kid uses her iPad to take notes when allowed. She does of course also have a laptop.

My music major uses an iPad Pro, but I think it's just a very expensive way to organize his music for various ensembles/studio teachers. He writes his papers on his laptop. Not sure what he uses for notes.

Yes, for note taking, use their Mac for most other things.

I teach higher ed. I currently have two students who use tablets (both are international students). The rest are on laptops - 90% of which are Apple products based on the logos I can see!

There are a lot of software programs for note taking etc.

Anonymous wrote:Ours uses iPad for note taking all the time. Lots of teachers teach from slides and it is easy to annotate the slides with the iPad and pencil.

^This. Prof here—I post my slides before class, and several students (not all or even most) use tablets to annotate, though they usually also have a laptop.

I'm assuming your kid will be a Freshman? I wouldn't buy one right now but wait and see if it's needed after a few months/semester.

Both my kids use one and asked for one after being at school for a while. It will vary by major and classes. For some it will be useful, for others not so much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my experience, GenZ doesn’t use iPads. I love mine, but it’s very much a tool of the olds (and small children, I guess).

False. Ipads are great for taking notes, doing problem sets, creating study guides for exams. Our student uses one in addition to his laptop.

+1 my kid does all notes on IPad w/Apple Pencil Pro sends to the cloud and syncs them to the mac book. Able to share notes with classmates etc. He's a bio-chem/Econ double major so has to write tons of formulas, works perfectly.

No Mac with Microsoft Office Suite. Business and Data Analytics student.

My kid uses the iPad for watching TV/streaming content while lying in bed

Yes. Many college students prefer to take notes on tablets

No

Ours uses iPad for note taking all the time. Lots of teachers teach from slides and it is easy to annotate the slides with the iPad and pencil.