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Graduated

joshellis625

joshellis625

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 16, 2008
282
19
Georgia
Hey guys, I just graduated from high school yesterday and I have a crapload of grad money. Right now all $1500 of it is in my savings account. I only want to spend some and keep saving the rest, especially since I'm going to college in the fall. So basically I am trying to figure out if I should buy a 16GB iPad WiFi.

The thing is I already own an iPhone 3GS and I just bought a '10 MacBook Pro for when I go to college.

Would an iPad be a waste of money you think? Is there anybody that has multiple Apple devices like me and still finds the iPad to be worth it?

Thanks for any input :)
 
joshellis625 said:
Hey guys, I just graduated from high school yesterday and I have a crapload of grad money. Right now all $1500 of it is in my savings account. I only want to spend some and keep saving the rest, especially since I'm going to college in the fall. So basically I am trying to figure out if I should buy a 16GB iPad WiFi.

The thing is I already own an iPhone 3GS and I just bought a '10 MacBook Pro for when I go to college.

Would an iPad be a waste of money you think? Is there anybody that has multiple Apple devices like me and still finds the iPad to be worth it?

Thanks for any input :)
Click to expand...

First off: Congratulations!

Get the iPad, you will find it "handy" when you don't want to lug that MacBook around.
 
If you're trying to save money then buying an iPad is probably getting off to a bad start.
 
Well I was thinking I would only spend the $500 and use the other $1000 for books and miscellaneous college things.
 
joshellis625 said:
Hey guys, I just graduated from high school yesterday <snip>

The thing is I already own an iPhone 3GS and I just bought a '10 MacBook Pro for when I go to college. <snip>
Click to expand...
Congrats on graduating!

Since you have a decent laptop and iPhone 3GS, I would hold off spending the money as you will need it while in college.
 
Well since your asking for financial advice on an Internet forum, I think you should buy bp stock instead..good deals right now :D
 
joshellis625 said:
Well I was thinking I would only spend the $500 and use the other $1000 for books and miscellaneous college things.
Click to expand...

Yeah :) But then you have a case, the apps etc.

I'm saying all of this as someone who has absolutely no restraint when it comes to spending money on devices so I'll completely understand if you cave in.
 
If you're a hardworking serious student, skip the iPad. You won't get much done on it, school work wise. It will be a distraction more than anything. You have a iPhone for that.

But if you're a party guy who just wants to get by and get a diploma, by all means, get an iPad. You can DJ keg parties with it and the girls will like it.

Either way, be forewarned that $1500 is not a crap load of money. It's not even a fart load. You will be wishing you had a LOT more than that come winter when you want to travel for the holidays and buy people presents, after having spent a year without a normal income, and drinking/eating what little income you did have.
 
Fantastically done. Ask all the Mac geeks whether or not you should buy an iPad instead of tuition or something :D

I say get the iPad, it'll be worth it eventually. I've probably watched much more than $500 worth of movies with Netflix for iPad.
 
mcdj said:
If you're a hardworking serious student, skip the iPad. You won't get much done on it, school work wise. It will be a distraction more than anything. You have a iPhone for that.

But if you're a party guy who just wants to get by and get a diploma, by all means, get an iPad. You can DJ keg parties with it and the girls will like it.

Either way, be forewarned that $1500 is not a crap load of money. It's not even a fart load. You will be wishing you had a LOT more than that come winter when you want to travel for the holidays and buy people presents, after having spent a year without a normal income, and drinking/eating what little income you did have.
Click to expand...

My son 3.8 GPA just finished his 2nd year at http://www.willamette.edu/ he ditched a small laptop for a ipad and loves it, but he has a regular windows 7 pc in his dorm room.

Loves his ipad for taking notes and reading...
 
iPad is also great for reading/editing PDF's and other documents. I'm finding that if I need to do some reading, I'll just move to a comfy place and do it using my iPad. As a result I'm spending less time sitting behind the desk with my MBP.
 
I just graduated from college a few weeks ago.

Save that money, build a cash cushion for yourself so you can do fun things in college and not have to worry about money, especially since you already have the iPhone and new Macbook!

You will be ahead of so many of your peers with just a little money in the bank.
 
The other thing to consider is where will you have wifi access? At my school there is wifi in all academic buildings and common use buildings, but in the dorms wifi is only available in the lounges. If you aren't going to have wifi access in your dorm room this is something you might want to consider. My school does not allow students to install a wifi router in our rooms so I had to resort to having my laptop act as a router just for my iPod touch to connect to the internet, but it was far from a perfect solution.

And if I were in your position I would save the money for the time being, resist the urge to buy something just because you have the money. If you're at school and find out that you'll have wifi access and still have the money, then go ahead and buy it.
 
JML42691 said:
The other thing to consider is where will you have wifi access? At my school there is wifi in all academic buildings and common use buildings, but in the dorms wifi is only available in the lounges. If you aren't going to have wifi access in your dorm room this is something you might want to consider. My school does not allow students to install a wifi router in our rooms so I had to resort to having my laptop act as a router just for my iPod touch to connect to the internet, but it was far from a perfect solution.

And if I were in your position I would save the money for the time being, resist the urge to buy something just because you have the money. If you're at school and find out that you'll have wifi access and still have the money, then go ahead and buy it.
Click to expand...

My university has 100% wifi coverage :p so it makes the decision even harder :D
 
Save your money on something that you can really use. In college, we all used to be really poor. We could have really used the extra cash to help make ends meet. The fact is, with your current set-up, I can think of 1000 other more useful things than an iPad. Just in the first couple weeks, I bet you burn through $500 of it just on stupid (but necessary) dorm/apartment crap.
 
Until a week ago I would say DON'T get one. You will need the money for things you don't even aware exists. BUT, i started using this iPad for reading papers using iannotate and its truly magic in that respect. Until now i used to read them on my laptop but it is an awful way to do that so I occasionally print them and marked the important parts and then had to carry / copy them so.... The ipad is just great!! you can read and annotate where ever you want in bed or on the sofa or the washroom (don't tell my students) places you won't take or open your laptop so the bottom line is GO for it.
 
congratulations!
first of all before buying any gadgets, remember first your dad. buy something for him for the fathers day!

for your status 16GB wifi only will do the job..
 
If you have a new MBP and an iphone, I would probably skip the ipad, I don't see how people can take notes using the touchscreen. If you don't have it already, when you can get it for a college discount, get windows 7 for bootcamp, microsoft office, and then a few games of course :D
 
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