<p>What are the benefits of having an iPhone in college?</p>
<p>benefits include: having an iPhone in college</p>
<p>ATT call coverage is spotty enough that you have credible excuse for ignoring calls from parents, or dropping mid-call if you should answer by mistake.</p>
<p>There are significant benefits to having a smartphone in college. Which platform you use is going to depend on preference and location. There are some schools that have significantly better coverage with AT&T or Verizon…and Verizon is NOT always the clear winner, not by a long shot. Once you choose a school ask the students which carrier is the best (or which is hated the least). From there you will have a better idea. Both AT&T and Verizon now offer iphone and andriod platforms so that’s no longer a determining factor. If you want to go with AT&T’s iphone please wait until the next gen is released this summer with the antenna fix. Most any app available on one platform will be available on the other.</p>
<p>get on facebook all day long…Get to search stuff on line all day long…Rack up huge bills and **** off parents.</p>
<p>Most phones from the major cell vendors now require a data plan. That being the case, you just have to choose the phone you want. It’s a matter of personal preference.</p>
<p>Definite downside - cost of the monthly plan (but I haven’t checked them in a while). Potential downside - fragility of the phone - i.e. it’s easy to break the screen (I haven’t broken mine but have heard of this afflicting some others).</p>
<p>I have an iPhone and while it’s cool and all, but I don’t think it’s in any way necessary for college. Almost any phone nowadays supports texting, alarm clock, calculator, etc. and is adequate for most people. Probably 99% of your phone use, even if you had an iPhone (outside of initially playing with it), will be for phone calls and texts. </p>
<p>Most people get an iPhone or similar one because they want one - not because they need one. </p>
<p>I agree with the above on the coverage - you need to check with the specific school as to the best coverage and sometimes even the specific dorm building.</p>
<p>Excessive weight gain and alcohol abuse are big problems for some college students. The iPhone is more expensive that most other cell phones. If your student gets an iPhone and pays for it him/herself - there will be less money for beer and pizza The iPhone is an important tool in helping kids live a healthier lifestyle in college.</p>
<p>^ Interesting thought process. I think it would be more effective to have spent their formative years teaching them about good nutrition, healthy activity/exercise, and the effects of drinking in excess. Silly me.</p>
<p>Here’s one,</p>
<p>My daughter has an app that allows her to scan her math homework with her phone, then email it to her teacher. No computer, scanner, or any other piece of equipment is necessary. The image is perfect and very legible. I’ve actually seen her do this as she’s walking out the door.</p>
<p>^^ But…doesn’t she have a computer anyway? She might have a scanner (as part of an all in one printer) anyway or regardless, even the cheapo phones usually have a camera built in now.</p>
<p>Again, I like my iPhone but I consider it a luxury for a college student - not any kind of necessity. If the cost of the monthly plan is no big deal to the student (or parents if they’re paying for it) then an iPhone is nice to have.</p>
<p>iPhone 4 has facetime chat. Works like Skype but no computer needed. AT&T requires the phone to be in a wi-fi area though. S and my husband got them for Christmas – so we can chat with S on the phone while he’s away at school and see him. Also got a tour of his house, which we hadn’t seen yet. I think other smart phones may have this facetime chat function too. </p>
<p>The data plan is $15 a month for the smaller package (200 MB??) , $25 for the larger one (2G ??). We paid for the smaller data package as part of his Christmas present.</p>
<p>Benefit of a smartphone (DD uses an IPhone) provided to a college student for parent:
- Data plan that allows access to emails, text, with or without internet etc.
DD doesn’t have any excuse to not respond to text, email, or facebook message with in a well defined time frame.</p>
<p>Other benefits for student :
- Check balance on the phone before making an overdraft.
- Check a route back to dorm if lost the maps app provide bus route, nearest T station/bus stop
- read/watch while waiting to board the plane.</p>
<p>^ The 200MG of data covers about 20min on youtube. Easily done killing time in between classes. They need to know what type of activity uses what amount of data or they are going to keep bumping up.</p>
<p>Having said this, I’ve seen some really great apps for some schools. They offer everything you could find online in an easy to use i-format. Some have bus routes that appear in real time so you know if the bus is running early or late. Some very cool features. A necessity? No, but if you have one, there are some really useful things out there.</p>
<p>^^^: I think better use unlimited one. DD got my original IPhone when I upgraded myself to IPhone 4 on it’s debut.
So that was cheap $20/month unlimited data with 200 texts but during the first month I removed the family unlimited text for $30/month (Since all of our IPhones had data plans with 200 texts) but DD text bill came to $80, so I immidiately reverted to $30/month unlimited text.</p>
<p>Fewer personal appliances to carry around at once. That’s about all I can think of.</p>
<p>AT&T no longer has unlimited data plans. If you have one from the pre-iphone 4 era holding on to it is a good idea. We also have unltd txt. Worth the $30!</p>
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<p>I do have a $30/month unlimited data plan on my IPhone 4 while DD has the original $20/month unlimited data plan.</p>
<p>Not about the iphone but alternatively:
Both my S (soph) & HighSchool sr. D bought themselves Blackberrys & ea pay the $30 a month to be on our plan. My college S went through freshman yr w/out. He felt like a dork not having one. He uses the email quite a bit. (The University sends about 5 emails a day) He could use his laptop but I think he didn’t feel like serious student … I’m a believer in having the right tools but I’m too cheap to pay $360 a year for phone/email service</p>