<p>My parents want to give me a messenger/laptop bag for my high school graduation gift. I’m going to be an engineer at Cornell, so I will probably be doing a lot of walking from Northern Campus to the Engineering quad freshman year. I want to know if any fellow Cornellians have a suggestion for what size bag I should get. Should I expect to have to bring my textbooks from my dorm to my classes? If so I should probably look at a medium/big bag. Or, will I just be bringing my laptop and a notebook or two?</p>
<p>Another side question: do freshman engineers walk back to their dorms in between classes, or do they mainly hang out in Philips Hall/the cafeteria area?</p>
<p>You will rarely ever need to bring a textbook to class. Only do so if your professor ask you to. I carry my laptop/everything I need in a regular book bag. All you need to bring to class is a notebook and a pen/pencil. </p>
<p>The engineers I know do not spend the majority of their time in their rooms. They are usually in the engineering quad during the day and at the library during the night. From my experience, it’s very difficult to study in your room; there are just way too many distractions. I only use my room for sleeping/relaxing.</p>
<p>Alright, so should I expect to basically not come back to my room for the rest of the day after I leave for my first class? Or do you return to your room after classes to grab some books and go study at the library? Also, do you think water resistance is a valuable thing given the weather?</p>
<p>i leave my room in the morning with everything i need for the day. never need textbooks. occassionally laptop. a lot of engineers tend to stick around duffield/carpenter library during the day. i usually pass the time after class at carpenter where i work, and then i go to my frat house to eat and chill for a while before returning to my dorm at 7 to do homework. usually have lunch at statler or trillium or ivy room</p>
<p>Unless you will have a lot of time between your classes(more than an hour), it would not really be helpful to go back to your room. It’s about a 10 minute walk from north campus to the engineering quad, so you would be wasting 20 minutes if you decide to go back. You would be surprised at how fast the day passes by. If you have a break in the middle of the day, eat lunch or find something to do. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about “water resistance” too much. I have been only caught in the rain only a few times. Just check the weather on a daily basis and carry an umbrella when you need to.</p>
<p>I strongly recommend water resistance, because without water resistance, one rainy day can equal one destroyed lap top and it can rain VERY VERY hard here for 5-10 minutes which is enough to destroy your computer.</p>
<p>S has 2 backpacks. One is the normal Jansport backpack a little smaller than what he used in high school, for everyday use. The other is a laptop backpack, used mostly for travel and on the infrequent days that he takes his laptop to class. As an upperclassman, most of his on-campus work is done in the computer lab, so the laptop usually stays in his room. </p>
<p>And I would also strongly recommend a water-resistant laptop bag. It rains in Ithaca, often sideways because of the wind, so an umbrella is not very helpful.</p>
<p>if the textbook isn’t on reserve at libraries, and you prefer doing work in libraries, you might need a backpack if you wanna do your hw out of the textbook.</p>
<p>Most of the time the only thing you will be carrying around is a notebook and pens, like said. During finals week or before a prelim you might be going to libraries and would need to bring textbooks and maybe a laptop to the library. You never really need to bring a laptop to class. Most people who do just browse the web, play games, not pay attention etc.</p>
<p>I’m a million times better at taking notes and, surprisingly, paying attention (it gives me something to do other than wander around with my eyes or day dream–when I really end up losing focus) when I have my laptop. I’ve taught myself this year to limit my in-class (at our HS, about half of the classes allow students to use laptops to take notes) web browsing, though I can’t say I don’t ever do it. It’s also nice to be Googling things as they’re being taught. Are there a lot of professors that don’t allow laptops in class? Will I be one of the few bringing a laptop to class?</p>
<p>I’ve never encountered a professor who didn’t allow you to bring laptops to class. I never bring mine anywhere, it might as well just be a desktop most of the time. most of my classes involve drawing pictures, and it’s so much more convenient to do that with pen and paper.
I do sometimes use my mobile internet access to google things during class. if a professor hints at some interesting historical figure, or paper, or uses a term I don’t recognize, to me it feels worth the moment of distraction. I do not do things like check twitter or facebook anymore because I know no matter what I tell myself, I am sure to zone out the moment the screen shows up and I will miss material.</p>
<p>my FWS professor didnt let us bring laptops. that was my only humanities class, and the only class I would have ever wanted to take notes on a laptop with</p>