Buying a Computer for Fall

It’s still really early to be thinking of buying a computer, but I know some of you have generous relatives who would love to get you a graduation gift. Fine! Let them! If they want to buy you a new computer, more power to them!

For the rest of us, some early advice:

• If you have a faithful machine that got you through high school, it will almost certainly be just fine for college. All those stickers on the lid are sort of reassuring and give you a sense of being at home. (I will give you advice later for getting Old Faithful ready for the Fall Semester.)
• Both Apple and Windows computers work very well at Ashland. I use Apple all the time and switch to Windows when I borrow space in the office next door.
• On the other hand, Chromebooks are not quite enough here. If you already have one, it will get you through our English class, but if you are buying a new machine, look elsewhere.
• I would avoid the big, expensive gaming computers for a couple of reasons. For one thing, you want something you can throw into your backpack and carry to the library. For another, even though Ashland is an incredibly safe environment, things occasionally get stolen or broken. If a thief is trying to decide between a $570 Acer and a $7000 Alienware, the Acer is safe.
• If you are buying new, protection programs such as AppleCare or Best Buy Total are worth the money. Campus computers live hard lives: Your idiot roommate spills Pepsi in the keyboard, you use it in bed and fall asleep asleep with it running, etc.
• If you are buying new, spend enough time typing in the store to decide whether you can stand the keyboard. Standard college assignments are at least three or four pages, and if you do not love that keyboard at the start of the project, you will hate it by the end of the evening. The computer store wants to sell you an expensive item, so take your time and type out several pages.
• Last thing: Don’t pay extra for any software before you get here. I will guide you to several free choices that will work for our course.