Back to School: Apps Every College Student Should Try
College is a horrifying time in one's personal development. Aside from being "the best years of your life," those years are also those in which your expenditures outstrip your income by more than they ever will later (with any luck and ambition on your part, at least). They can also be some of your more strapped-for-time years and attention-deficit-overload years.
Here are a few tools we wish we'd had when we were still dorm-dwelling nobodies. Forward these links on to the collegiate folks in your life, and add your own favorites to the list. Together, we can rid the world of dropped classes and "ramen starvation."
One-Stop Comparison Shop for Textbooks
BigWords is a site and iPhone app that source a slew of online retailers to get students the cheapest possible textbooks, taking the legwork out of online comparison shopping. BigWords also claims to optimize prices by looking for multi-item specials, shipping discounts, coupons, and other exceptional deals. Students (or textbook-shopping parents and guardians) can also share "bookbags" with others, and the site claims an average $225 savings on multi-item orders.
Study Socially
When students can use Facebook Connect to sign into an app designed to optimize study time, you know the world has changed. StudyBlue takes advantage of your virtual Rolodex to help you share notes, flashcards, and other study tools. Notes can be recorded as text or as multimedia content - that means you can share audio and video with your class-skipping colleagues. If only it counted as attendance, no? Best of all, the StudyBlue team has announced mobile capabilities for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Another app we like in this space is Quizlet, an online flashcard and quizzing resource that also uses Facebook Connect.
Rent and Return Textbooks
BookRenter soothes the eternal frustration of spending a triple-digit amount on a textbook you'll use for four months and then resell to your college's bookstore for a princely ten bucks. Renters register and have access to the company's catalog of millions of titles. Prices are refreshingly reasonable; shipping options and rental periods are flexible; and return shipping is free.
Situate Yourself
DesignYourDorm is a new-this-year app that allows college students to design their dorm room interiors in 3D and purchase their decor selections online. Not only can students often choose their exact room dimensions and layout from the DYD database and collaborate with dormmates to get rooms furnished based on thorough checklists; parents can also send care packages from a gallery that calls to mind an edible version of 1800Flowers.
Mobilize Your Textbooks
Coursesmart, a leader in the e-textbook game, just released an iPhone app, which we reviewed recently. Their catalog so far includes 7,000 ebooks, and their software works for both Macs and PCs. The desktop apps also allow students to take notes while reading, and both desktop and mobile apps have built-in search function.
Research on the Fly
The mobile version of Wikipedia has long been available for on-the-go consumption, but did you know Wikipedia also just released an official iPhone app, which we recently reviewed? You can also try iPhone apps such as Wapedia, Wikiamo, or Wikipanion.
Get Yourself and Your Group On-Task
Remember the Milk is one app we like for individual or group tasks. This full-featured program allows users to keep track of tasks through RSS feeds, share tasks via email, add tasks via email or SMS, and even assign tasks a specific location. There's an iPhone app, and RTM plays nicely with Gmail, Twitter, and Google Calendar, as well.
Hit 'Em With Your Best Shot
Finally, after all your hard work and study, you'll need to create a certain number of papers, presentations, projects, and perhaps even a website or two during your time in school this year. We have a whole list of code-free website creation tools that range from easy to use to ridiculously easy to use, and with a little finessing, they'll definitely impress a professor or two. For creating multimedia presentations, we like Empressr, Drop.io, and SlideShare, all of which have different social sharing/embedding and multimedia capabilities.
Back to Basics
For staying organized, keeping in touch, taking notes, and generally keeping yourself sane, your old friends are more useful now than ever. And by "old friends," we mean those apps you already use so much you don't even realize they're apps anymore. Try seeing Facebook, Google Docs, Google Notebook, Gmail, Twitter, and Skype as study and communication tools rather than just time-wasters, and you'll notice that you can get a lot done on your favorite sites.
So, what apps are you using to get organized, get smart, get together, or just get it right this year? Let us know in the comments!
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Great resource list. I didn't even know you could rent a book. Great for College students and their Moms.
I wish I had these when I was in College
For bookmarks and share DIIGO is a good option. Also YOONO is a good side bar in firefox, help you manage IM, facebook, twitter, feeds, mails and sharing...everything in one
Many great resources, nice job Jolie! I wanted to share with everyone a fun and exciting site, Swaptree.com, that allows students to trade books, music, DVDs, textbooks, and video games with other students across the country for free!
We all know how expensive a trip to the bookstore can be these days, and Netflix isn't exactly the cheapest option either. With Swaptree, you can simply list the books you won't read again, or the game you mastered last spring, and exchange them for millions of items from other users' bookshelves. It's 100% free to join, and you can print mailing labels directly from the site.
Don't want to spend your summer savings on textbooks? Trade your dusty DVD collection for this semester's books on Swaptree.com. Save your hard earned money for the fun stuff. And don't forget to share the love with your friends.
Visit us:
www.Swaptree.com
Hope to see you all soon!
Best Regards,
Jack O'Hurley
Swaptree.com
What apps are you using to get organized, get smart, get together, or just get it right this year? Let us know more...
Students can also check out http://www.BookDealFinder.com from their iPhone for a simple, easy to use, mobile phone compatible website to save TONS of money on textbooks every semester!
If you don't check it out, you are probably spending too much!
Shmoop is a great resource for students and teachers. Funny, smart study guides and teacher resources (with a dose of attitude) written by Ph.Ds from top schools like Stanford, Harvard, and Berkeley.
Shmoop covers literature, US history, poetry (with more subjects launching soon) and recently released 200 eBooks for the Amazon Kindle
When iwantsandy shut down, I started using helicoid.net
I'm just about to graduate (masters). The apps that got me through - helipad (http://pad.helicoid.net)and deadline (http://deadlineapp.com)
I'm not an iPhone user, but helipad is available on the iPhone too.
I'm a campus rep for Koofers.com - they're launching nationwide this year!
A great web app that any student who will be writing a paper this year should know about is eduify.com. We are also giving away 3 scholarships right now that you can learn more about by following @eduify on twitter! (http://twitter.com/eduify)
Great resources, many which I didn't know about. Another application to check out is Quizlet at http://www.quizlet.com
Quizlet provides ability to create flashcard sets with as many questions and answers as you want. Create new flashcard set, share flashcard sets with others via email, Facebook, or MySpace, and use submitted questions/answers to create more flashcard sets.
There is another new cocktail recipes app for iPhone. It is both drinking recipes and a game. Great for an icebreaker at a bar also. The recipe app web site is http://www.ishotmachine.com
These are great tips!!! Thank you!!! Anything to help cash-strapped college kids is wonderful. :)
A website for helping students win scholarships is:
http://www.how2winscholarships.com
With Swaptree, you can simply list the books you won't read again, or the game you mastered last spring, and exchange them for millions of items from other users' bookshelves. It's 100% free to join, and you can print mailing labels directly from the site.
You can also check out www.DealOz.com , DealOz compares 200 bookstore prices and free discount coupons too. Their coupons are valid and have saved over $500 on my textbooks.
You can also check out www.DealOz.com , DealOz compares 200 bookstore prices and free discount coupons too. Their coupons are valid and have saved over $500 on my textbooks.
Bookase.com will enable you to compare the prices of books and textbooks all over the world in order to determine which online retailer is the most convenient one for you. It offers various option on shippng methods. So that you can choose which option suits you the best. It also provides discount coupons to furhter reduce on the cost of the books. This site aims at replacing traditional bookstores with a price comparison engine for the major online bookstores worldwide connecting both buyers and sellers directly
Great list. It has a lot of information that i would need for my paper. Also would want to share another link that i often use : education flashcards
Thank you for the information. This is definitely going to help me with my project. The list is amazing. I also use flashcards to help me. Take a look at this link : http://www.funnelbrain.com
If you're looking for a way to study Quizlet sets when not at your computer, there's Touchcards http://bit.ly/touchcards2
As a student, I thought Google scholar is one of the best tools to search for journals and do some research. During halloween and other festivals, I often find this site quite interesting for new peter pan costume
The Palm Pre has ClassTracker, FlashCards and A+ Student Organizer
We all know how expensive a trip to the bookstore can be these days, and Netflix isn't mantolama exactly the cheapest option either. With Swaptree, you can söve simply list the books you won't read again, or the game you mastered last spring, and boyacı exchange them for millions of items from other users' bookshelves. It's 100% free to join, and you can print kartonpiyer mailing labels directly from the site.
If you get to College Alumni you will for sure get the chance to taste everything that you want, because the university provides people with absolutely everything they desire.