Congratulations!  You’re headed to college.  Many colleges have specific requirements for incoming students.  Georgia Tech, for instance, requires every student to have a laptop and gives very specific requirements. Some schools have no requirements but suggest that you check with the individual department within your college.

Check with your college to see if they have arrangements with Dell, Apple, IBM, etc. to purchase computers at a discount. Wherever you buy a computer, buy the computer and software separately. MS Office Student/Teacher edition comes in a 3 computer version — so it can be loaded onto 3 machines and not tied to a specific computer. Anti-virus products by Symantec and others also come in multi-user packs. You should check to see which anti-virus/anti-spyware software your school requires. Use their suggestions. Trying to substitute another anti-virus software will waste time and money. Some colleges sell third-party “computer service warranties”. On the surface these may seem like a good idea but read the fine print carefully. Most warranties only cover hardware problems and frequently exclude printers. Most computer problems are caused by software, viruses, and spyware which are usually excluded. Dropping the laptop or spilling liquid on the keyboard also usually voids the warranty.

Whatever your budget, consider spending $50-$100 for an external backup drive. The information on the computer is the real asset (think term papers, contacts, course syllabi, etc). Hardware is easily replaceable unlike the term paper which took all night to write.

Most schools have their computer requirements online and may also give you a list in an orientation packet. The following are links to a few schools’ computer recommendations for Georgia.

University of Georgia — Under New User’s guide in the left column, click on “What to Buy”.
Georgia State Univ. — GSU doesn’t list computer requirements but they do require Symantec (Norton) Anti-virus. You should check with your individual department and college for recommendations.
Georgia Tech Univ. — requires every student to have a laptop with strict specifications
Georgia College & State Univ.
Georgia Southern Univ.
Valdosta State Univ.
Columbus State Univ. — CSU doesn’t list computer recommendations but they do have requirements for connecting to their network.