<p>We got an I phone for my daughter. She said she would rather have the phone than a new laptop. I resisted for awhile, but sprung for the I phone eventually as a graduation/birthday present. Now I want one . . .</p>
<p>Older 2 have iPhones,D3 ,6 th grade has a cellphone,</p>
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With AT&T you get 200MB for $15. It’s $25 for 2GB and $45 for 4GB.</p>
<p>jym - I still have one in grad school.</p>
<p>I’m not saying an iPhone isn’t nice to have, just that it’s rarely necessary and it’s the monthly data plan that needs to be considered. One gotcha is if someone ever uses up or goes over their data limit. This can be avoided if one is mostly on wireless but if someone wants to browse a lot, watch a lot of youtube’s, streaming content, or use the maps a lot while on 3G it can rack up quickly which is why AT&T was pretty much forced to put limits on the data.</p>
<p>I actually have an iPhone (older generation one on the unlimited plan) so it’ not that I’m against them, just that I consider it an unnecessary luxury for most students with an ongoing expense for whoever’s paying the monthly bill. I’ll spend ridiculous amounts of money for some things that I consider worthwhile, like the education itself and even other gifts, but not something I consider a luxury that has an annual cost measured in the hundreds of $$ on an ongoing basis that has only a largely redundant benefit (redundant with what the laptop I already gave them can do - and no, they don’t tote their laptops around with them generally because they don’t need to).</p>
<p>Different people may have different needs as well. I still think most students don’t need frequent all day long access to email but perhaps some do for some reason or other. It doesn’t make sense that a prof or admin person at a college would depend on students being able to receive an email within a few hours in the middle of the day and just assume they have an email enabled smart phone or connected laptop with them since that’s requiring quite a bit on the part of the students.</p>
<p>I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the idea that parents are willing to pay for this for their kids, just that to the OP’s initial question, it’s not ‘needed’ by most students in order to have a successful college career. It’s not as necessary as the laptop for example. Note though that I put something like a TV in the same camp, that’s another luxury item I was unwilling to buy my college student (but my kids also didn’t want a TV and never had one while in the dorms). Higher end laptop yes, cheaper TV no.</p>
<p>There are a lot of very generous parents here on this thread willing to spend their money for something like this so maybe at the end of the day the OP will luck out and her parents will be more like one of these rather than like me.</p>
<p>We have 5 on a family plan; unlimited texting and no smartphone/data plans. We are eligible for upgrades and are with TMobile. I told my sons, 23 and 21, they could get them if they paid the monthly data cost. Neither one was interested.</p>
<p>I would like one for me, but consider it a toy. In our rural area, we cannot bundle any communications and I think the combined bills are too high, even though we have basic everything. So…no smartphones for any of us. For $10 a month/line, I will keep 2 sons on plan. Agree with others that the communication factor is great.</p>
<p>At least for my kids, I do think a smartphone during college (S1 graduated) would have been a HUGE plus. There are many prof. who do send last minute emails and expect that the kids will access them immediately. D is 14, but I expect to get her one before she attends college.</p>
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<p>This is no different than that most companies assume people have access to internet. Airlines frequently notify passengers change of schedule via emails, they no longer call people. This is the world we are living in. Maybe I am looking at a small segment of college students, but every one of D1´s friends in college had a smart phone.</p>
<p>My 16-year-old son thinks we’re unfit parents because we won’t get him a smart phone (I’m only half joking). I told him I will pay $20/month, the amount I would spend on a TracFone plan, and we’ll get any plan if he’ll pay the difference.</p>
<p>Instead, he borrowed his brother’s phone and assumed it had an unlimited texting plan. This phone was a gift from my parents, and they are paying the monthly fee. I told 16-year-old numerous times to give the phone back to his brother. Six days later, I hit the roof, so he gave it back. Then older brother came in, laughing. He’d just gotten a text message from Verizon stating that the overage on texting was $100!!! 1000 texts were included on the plan. The kid had sent and received 2000 texts in 6 days!!</p>
<p>I had to call my mother and tell her we will be sending her a check for $100, which will be debited from younger son’s account. GRR! I really do NOT want him to have unlimited texting if he’s going to be doing it non-stop.</p>
<p>My D in college has a laptop which is virtually attached to her. She accesses her email from there, also watches TV shows, Skypes with her sister & friends, etc. She & I have AT&T cell phones which are not “smart” but we did buy the unlimited texting plan for everyone in the family. It comes in very handy! H has an iPhone which he needs for his job. iPhones are not cheap and with the laptop already doing almost everything the phone would, and then there is the "regular’ phone, we are not g oing to put out the cash for one when we are already sedning the school major bucks every month.</p>
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<p>I agree with this, even if I don’t like it. Neither of my kids had iphones in college, but my last kid graduated in 2010. If they were starting out today, I might feel differently about the “need,” because like every other type of technology, once it becomes the norm, expectations change.
Where my Dd, who finished her Master’s Degree this year, finds the iphone the most useful is on the job search. Interviewers do seem to expect you’ll reply within the day if not the hour, and responding quickly can make all the difference.<br>
My son has an old-fashioned flip phone that he’s had all though college, but he just bought himself an Ipad, which seems to almost replace both his phone and laptop.
We’re not in Kansas anymore!</p>
<p>Mainelonghorn
—we bought the unlimted texting plan for our dau --and the rest of the remaining 3 of us–when she was in h.s. – because the kids really do text nonstop, and it is an important social tool for them whether we like it or not. We decided it was better to buy that plan than constantly fight her over how many texts had been sent. Also, I & my H have found it very useful! It is great when we are trying to find each other at a large event, or picking up the kid after something at the school, or letting each other know the train is late, do we need milk, want to eat out & where should we meet, and all those things. I’m glad to have it. And with texting you can communicate while in the “quiet car” of the commuter train, where he likes to ride.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your responses, I never expected this many.</p>
<p>I am more than willing to pay the fees for the data plan (I already pay for my service anyway). Seems like they can be pretty helpful regarding emails in college</p>
<p>Our family has Sprint and we are going to add the data plan as Christmas gift to ourselves. D will get the new I phone and husband and I will get an off brand smart phone that doesn’t add two extra 10 dollar line monthly line charges. We only relented because we have no mortgage and our retirement goals are on target. I’m putting the I phone ahead of some cosmetic home improvements I would like to do. I would never consider the expense of a data plan if I did not pay off my credit cards every month and if I couldn’t save toward emergencies, retirement and future healthcare needs.</p>
<p>A big factor is whether you are up for renewal on your phone and the IPhone is available to you at the $99 or 199 price.
We have unlimited texting on all of our phones. It is not much. We all use it. I think it is $20 or 25 a month for 5 phones. H has had an IPhone since the beginning and has unlimited data. I have the $15 data package and have never come close to going over. Younger D got an Iphone from a neighbor for doing chores (it was an older version of the Iphone) she just upgraded to a new IPhone 4. She has the $15 and she pays that. I get an email when she is getting close to the limit. She has not gone over.
We gave our 12 College grad and Iphone and service for 1 yr as his graduation present. He had always had a cheap phone. He loves his new phone.
My other college senior has an old fashion phone. She has resisted the smart phone movement but she is considering getting one. She finds that for her major it would be nice to have access to her email during the school day. She has had classes cancelled or room changes at the last minute. Or interviews rescheduled. She gets frustrated that all her professors assume everyone has a smartphone.</p>
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In that case, depending on the cost of the gifts your parents give you, giving an iPhone may not be such a big deal. Is your current phone eligible for upgrade? If not then the cost of the iPhone is way too expensive unless it’s an older model you can get used. But if you’re eligible for an upgrade and plan to stay with your current carrier anyway the the cost of the iPhone itself isn’t a big deal. I even saw the 3GS for free on AT&T’s website (but out of stock) and the 4G (not the very latest 4GS) for $99. Make sure your parents understand you’d even be willing to pay the data plan costs for it. You might even say that you realize you don’t absolutely need it but it’d make life easier, more fun, and you’d really enjoy it just like you enjoy other things you get but don’t necessarily need.</p>
<p>If that doesn’t work then just get one yourself since you’re already willing to pay the major cost which isn’t the phone itself, it’s the required service and data plan. You may be able to get one for anywhere from free to $99.</p>
<p>I think that three of my Ds have I-phones, and the other two have BBs. My H has one of each. He prefers his I-phone but uses his BB for work because they are the business standard for security reasons. I have a BB, by choice. I tried his I-phone when it was time for a new phone for me but I didn’t like it much, so got a BB which is fine for me. All of my Ds are finished undergrad now, and are either in grad school or working but, as someone else mentioned, I don’t recall seeing any of their friends during recent years who did not have either an I-phone or a BB. I often walk through the campus of the large university in our city and those types of phones are ubiquitous, for students and staff.</p>
<p>We’re on a Verizon family plan, no smartphones. (DH also has a crackberry issued by his employer.) Guys can get the free “new every two” phone or pay the difference. Neither has been inclined to pony up for the phone or the data.</p>
<p>S1 is graduating in the spring and plans to get a Droid with his employee discount. He wants it for programming capability.</p>
<p>The arguments for having a smartphone for interviews and last-minute changes/updates at school are worth considering re: S2. If he goes overseas for a semester, we may have little choice but to upgrade.</p>
<p>Southwest and United both will send text messages to one’s non-data phone.</p>
<p>No, a college student doesn’t need an iPhone. My daughter doesn’t have one and she’s still alive. Furthermore, she’s happy in college and has straight As.</p>
<p>If you want an iPhone for Christmas, you can certainly put that on your wish list, and your parents can choose to buy one for you if they’d like to give you one.</p>
<p>“The “I-am-cool-I-have-an-iPhone” image is just so annoying to me.”</p>
<p>My son would say…“I-am-cool-I-DON’T-have-an-iPhone” . He has an android (DON’T say Droid to him unless you really MEAN Droid), and yes we pay. D has an Iphone 3, but not until it was cheap.She said she didn’t “need” it, but unlike son, that’s the way she is.</p>
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If you can afford to pay the fees for your service and data plan, you should be able to pay for you own hardware as well. Forget the overpriced iPhone and go for a lower-priced Android-based phone instead. </p>
<p>I don’t like the idea of kids begging their parents for gifts that their parents don’t want to give. It doesn’t matter if the object is useful or not – a gift should be given from the heart. It’s one thing to let the parents know what you really would like to have, it’s quite another to solicit advice from others on how to convince them after they already have said no.</p>
<p>If it is worth that much for you to have it, then you can and should find a way to pay for it on your own.</p>
<p>My sister gave her twin 8 year olds and her 10 year old iPhones for Christmas last year (my jaw hit the floor). I’m still trying to figure out why kids this young would ‘need’ a smart phone . Actually, I know why she did it…she’s is all about image so she makes sure her kids have the ‘coolest’ toys. When the 10 year old turned 11 this year, she got an iPad2.</p>
<p>I’ve not read the whole thread so apologies if its redundant:</p>
<p>I’d want my kids to have an iphone. I just don’t want to pay the service fee. </p>
<p>A smart phone- not necessarily iphone- is really beneficial for students. They can access vista/blackboard and download files, they can use the iphone as a ‘hotspot’ to hook up their laptop to the internet if regular internet is not readily available (e.g. if off campus, or if campus isn’t wireless or for when the campus internet service gets spotty). They can get their emails or texts from their prof fast and easy (I email my larger sections a lot and not everyone is checking their mail but they do it more readily if with a smart phone). They can located buildings on campus with their phone. They can take a great picture with their phone to save all the notes on the board- or send to a friend at the end of class. They can watch videos of the lectures on their phone. They can access articles from the library. And it is really nice and convenient to have their whole calendar, phone, video, camera, internet all in one place. </p>
<p>True story: I left class a bit quickly, a group didn’t get their assignment to me on time as I exited. They sent me an email from their phone from the classroom, which I saw, and were able to ‘find me’ before I left campus. I wrote where I was and they were able to drop it off on time. </p>
<p>Anyways, I didn’t see the point of a smart phone until I got one. As a professor, I can’t imagine living without it. My school fortunately covers my bills for it (here where I live its expensive). But I think it would be a very very useful plus for a student to have one as well. I actually do not work with any graduate students now who don’t already have a smart phone…would be such a pain if they did not.</p>