Laptop mandatory for class?
Hello, first year CPA student. I have a good computer set up at home and would honestly prefer to bring my iPad over a laptop to class. Wondering if an actual laptop is required though? I have a pretty crappy one right now so not sure if I need to purchase one or if I will be fine with what I already have? Thanks in advance.
5 Replies
you don't need to bring a laptop, but it would certainly make your life easier being able to program along with the lecture
many lectures are practical time spent watching a professor code, or modify code as demonstration
and some profs will ask you to code in your lab periods
that being said, there are usually computers in the classrooms, but sending the files back to your main PC at the end of every class sounds like a pain
you definitely don't need a good laptop for this program though
thanks! @.caramelcorn
I have had at least one class for which I would have been screwed without a laptop. WEB322 for example; our quizzes are just everybody in the class sitting at tables coding on our laptops, in a classroom without any PCs in it. If you didn't have one you just... wouldn't be able to do the quiz. That said if money is tight you don't have to purchase one, since the school provides loaner laptops. And other equipment should you need it, like webcams, microphones, iPads and even phone chargers.
https://students.senecacollege.ca/spaces/186/it-services/wiki/view/1000/loaner-services
I agree with Carmen though; even a crappy laptop should be sufficient.
Seneca Students
Loaner Services
The ITS Service Counters located across all four major Seneca campuses (King, Markham, Seneca@York and Newnham) maintain a variety of computing equipment available for rent.
One more thing I would probably add is that you should familarize yourself with Github if you aren't already so you can seamlessly transition between working on something on your laptop to your home PC and vice versa. I'm sure the majority of us in this program - myself included - prefer to be working on our better computer setup at home, but being able to work on your stuff while you're not at home is really important. Git makes this really easy since you can just push your code to your repo at the end of any work session wherever you are, then when you get home or whatever you can just pull it and pick up right where you left off, without any downtime or loss of saved work. Basically, somebody is going to force you to learn Git at some point anyway (Fardad being a likely candidate if you have him), and once you do you'll regret having not learned it even sooner, so you might as well just learn now :D
Appreciate the input @the.many