iPad for college Part 2: Necessary Apps

Now that you have your iPad all set up and ready for college your going to need some apps for it right? It's not going to do you much good as only a calendar and email device. As I mentioned before with my little brother at college for the first time taking only an iPad as his computer I came up with a list of apps I thought would be essential for him to have. Most of these are also recommended by Apple under their apps for college section in the App Store.

• Pages -- is a beautiful and fully functional word processor for writing all of those papers you'll be getting assigned soon.
• Numbers -- is a very easy to understand and use spreadsheet program. It creates great looking graphics as well. One word of caution though, if you are an advanced MS excel user in a CS, mathematic, of scientific field you will find that Numbers on an iPad may not be able to handle everything you want it to, you are probably one of the people who still needs a laptop. 
• Keynote -- Is a great app for making presentations that look wonderful. It will allow you to email them out in a variety of formats so that you can easily collaborate with classmates on group assignments.
• Evernote -- will be your new best friend in college. It will help you keep track of all your notes, and is a great place to organize research, draft assignments, and just about anything else you might need. It is probably the most indispensable app outside of your calendar and email. My full review is here.
• [Your School's] app -- many colleges and universities have designed their own smartphone and tablet apps that allow their students secure access to many of the school's website features. If your school has one it is a must have. Here I reviewed BYU's app, it can give you some idea what a school app might do.
• Dictionary.com -- whether you are a freshman or an experienced senior you are about to encounter a lot of new words, dictionary.com can help you find their meaning. The nice thing about this app is that has both on and offline capabilities and it is also tapped into Thesaurus.com to help you with your writing.
• Flash Cards -- Flash cards are one of the most simple and effective study tools ever invented. But, paper cards can take up a lot of space and give your hand a cramp. Using a flash card app is a much better option. There are dozens, I use Study Flash because it is good and free.
• Google Drive -- At school you are going to have to collaborate with other students for projects and study groups. The best way to do this is to use google docs and to work on those you will need the google drive app.
• Dropbox -- You need to deal with a lot of files and your space is limited on your iPad, especially if you have a 16gig like most college students. Dropbox is an excellent service for cloud storage and sharing. 
• Todo List -- you need a todo list app to keep track of everything you have, well, todo. There are hundreds of these in the App Store, I have reviewed a couple of them, Evernote can also do it, there are some systems even designed specifically for keeping track of school work. Find one that works for you and make good use of it.

Well I think that's it for the necessary apps. Remember that some of the most useful apps (calendar, mail, safari, etc) are built right into your iPad. I have a post answering that question you've been wondering: 

What about Microsoft Office?

And I'll also have posts on non-necessary but useful apps for college, as well as one in iPad accessories for college.

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Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.