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High schoolers w/ MB/MBP , do you bring your laptop to school?

L

lu0s3r322

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 28, 2005
747
29
Around my high school we have a couple of techies that bring their laptops, but it's only 4 or 5 out of 4500 kids. My friend brings his PDA.

So I was wondering if any other high schoolers bring their laptops to school and why? I would be totally pysched to be able to bring my MBP, but I'm afraid it could get stolen. Plus this is no incentive to bring it unless on days where I would really need it for some presentation or something.
 
My Macbook and BlackBerry are with me at school every day.

We are allowed to use laptops during school, and I take full advantage.

Cell phones are allowed with you but they have to be turned off.
 
I don't take my PowerBook to school.. for one it's not allowed (and definitely not allowed on the school network), and also it would get stolen in an instant.
 
wierd i have never ever needed to bring a laptop to class and i am a senior in mech engr in college. what kind of high tech high schools and middle schools are you all going to? lol
 
how do you use it in school though?

my friend with the pda is trying to go paperless and use a tablet pc at school and i can see that working, but which classes would be easier with a macbook pro?

i have spanish (mainly worksheets), human geography (could work), english (not many notes), precalculus (definitely hard to do paperless), health (no notes), physics (like precalc).
 
I use my macbook in Computer/Business Tech., I use it in stage crafting at the sound board, I take it into my student council meetings to give a transcript of each meeting, and its really useful for notes in my AP English class; printed notes look a lot cleaner and get me more points when they are graded.
 
I have an iBook and there is no way in hell I would bring my iBook to school UNLESS I am 100% certain that it would not get stolen. Hell, I don't even bring my iPod to school and I keep my phone with me at all times. I have a locker next to a person that would steal stuff.
 
when i take it.. i dont carry it around and plus i take it maybe once every other week so i just leave it in my peer com class(cuz theres only one period and the teacher only teaches that class) and thats the only class i use it for too.
and i dont go to a tech school. I mean come on, our schools main computer lab is stuck using the dark blue iMac G3s while the computers class gets g4's with a few teachers getting CD iMacs. So i dont go to a very technical school
 
It really depends on what you are using it for. I used to bring my Powerbook to high school because I was a technician for yearbook, and the fact that I used Keynote for all my class presentations. Like others in this thread said, a laptop in class is useful for humanities based classes like English and History, but not in Mathematics and Science based classes (try to quickly type the quadratic formula, 30-60-90 triangle, sine/cosine functions, or a chemical formula.) Now that I go to college, I bring my PowerBook to all my non math/science lectures so that my notes can keep up with the speed of the lecture.

If you do decide to bring your MBP to class, be careful and keep your eye on it at all times. I suggest a sleeve case for easy transport for those times when you need to answer nature's call during class. If you are absolutely paranoid, buy theft insurance (www.safeware.com).
 
I've brought my MBP only once for a presentation. And I must say Keynote blew their MINDS! But it was for AP Bio and I brought it straight to my teacher's class before school, and had her lock it in one of her drawers. She understood. I go to an inner city high school (also about 4500-5000 students like yours) in a very VERY bad area and would never bring it every day. I'd also probably end up playing games in class with it instead anyways and it'd be nothing but a distraction. However if you go to a rich/private school that allows it, and you're comfortable bringing it back and forth everyday. Why not?

However I do bring my iPod to school. Without it the bus ride would be horrible. so many freshmen, so many freshmen...... *shivers*
 
Xander562 said:
I've brought my MBP only once for a presentation. And I must say Keynote blew their MINDS! But it was for AP Bio and I brought it straight to my teacher's class before school, and had her lock it in one of her drawers. She understood. I go to an inner city high school (also about 4500-5000 students like yours) in a very VERY bad area and would never bring it every day. I'd also probably end up playing games in class with it instead anyways and it'd be nothing but a distraction. However if you go to a rich/private school that allows it, and you're comfortable bringing it back and forth everyday. Why not?

However I do bring my iPod to school. Without it the bus ride would be horrible. so many freshmen, so many freshmen...... *shivers*
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ya i go to a school like yours. and almost transfered to private schoolbut they woudnt have let me use my macbook so i didnt go because it wasnt supported. It had the intel chip but i wasnt willing to run boot camp. Also the one only person i knew was my friend who transfered to that private school.
 
I barely even bring my MacBook to University with me.

I don't really see the point much of the time. Some classes it is alright, but most it's pretty useless. I can't think of a time in high school were it would have been useful for me.
 
We have so many computers on campus, I don't see a need to bring my laptop. I like having paper notes that I can arrange any way I like, since I often take notes as a map or timeline sort of thing, which you can't really do on a mac.

But other than that, we have over 900 computers on campus everywhere, and laptops can be checked out from the library...so I don't really need my own at school.
 
I bring my MBP to my high school everytime I go to school. I go to a private Christian high school so the chances of it getting stolen are essentially zero. I use it to take notes and when I'm in chemistry class, play games during the boring lectures :D. (I record the lectures using audacity so no big deal)
 
I bring mine to school every day. I go to a tiny (too small) art school of about 85. I use my computer to work as we often have time to work in class, as well as using it for notes.

(oh, and game too, of course :eek: :D )

There is no chance of it getting stolen, although I do go to school in downtown, so there is some danger there, but not too much.
 
I take my PB to school when I need too. My school is all based technology, and they allow me to bring my PB when i need too. I try not to bring it that often tough, only when i have to do some Animation stuff or look at Apple products...
 
I never saw the need for a laptop in high school, i saved money til i bought one for college. Honestly, beyond presentations which could easily be just loaded onto a flash drive and put into your pocket, there's really no reason to risk it getting damaged or stolen, or carry that extra weight around. Pen and paper allow you to take much more creative note taking ;), but really, it offers much more liberty that i'm sure you could do if you had the know-how, but i'd rather just be able to draw a chart rather than go through the process of making one.

In college now it's different, now some professors walk in, open their notes and lecture non-stop for an hour talking faster than I write, so typing comes in handy. About recording lectures - are you really going to sit through a lecture twice? You're there once and can't do anything about it, why not just listen the first time? Never was a problem for me in HS though. I'm also not carrying around all (or any, for that matter) of my books, so for classes that i need the speed of typing, i take it, otherwise, no point.

So, in summation: Really there's no need to bring it in, pen and paper work marvelously, and won't crash/freeze/run out of batteries. Bringing it would provide greater opportunities for it to get damaged, stolen, or both. Bringing it would also provide a nice little distraction during class as well, unfortunately
 
I don't know one person that brings a laptop to school. Phones are prohibited by school policy but everyone carries them anyway, so as long as they are neither seen nor heard they don't really care. My school is rather small, about 1400 kids, but we don't really have all that much use for us to bring our own computers. If we are doing an activity that requires a computer the teacher will just book time in one of the many computer labs.
 
Yes I do. MBP by the way.
I'd say 20% do at my school, That sounds like a lot but their are 230 enrolled students at my high school. I use it to take notes notes and ical for my homework. I don't worry about theft but i'm not careless. We dont have lockers, and i often leave just sitting in the hallway with my backpack. Their has never been a fight, theft, etc at my school. ever.
 
When I was in high school, I did not have this problem as laptop is very expensive computer. High School ages are tricky one; there are many things going on. One of the things would be to show your expensive Mac to your fellow students. If you feel the there is a theft problem at your school, then, don't take it with you. I am not sure how it is at high school now; but, when I was there, I did not have the time to use a laptop computer in a meaningful way if I had a laptop.
I try not to show what I have at my place as I don't want to draw any unwanted attention from stranger. There is no point showing off. If there is someone you would like to wow, then, bring that person to your place instead.
 
YS2003 said:
When I was in high school, I did not have this problem as laptop is very expensive computer. High School ages are tricky one; there are many things going on. One of the things would be to show your expensive Mac to your fellow students. If you feel the there is a theft problem at your school, then, don't take it with you. I am not sure how it is at high school now; but, when I was there, I did not have the time to use a laptop computer in a meaningful way if I had a laptop.
I try not to show what I have at my place as I don't want to draw any unwanted attention from stranger. There is no point showing off. If there is someone you would like to wow, then, bring that person to your place instead.
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For those of us that are actually interested in doing the best and most organized job they can it has nothing to do with 'showing off'.
 
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