7 Essential Apps for College Students

Its August again, which means many of you will be heading off to college classes for the first time. You may have a lot on your mind, but one thing you shouldn’t have to worry about is how to prepare your iOS device to empower you in and out of the classroom. We are going to look at seven essential apps that, while most of them are not specific to students, represent a powerful solution to leveraging your iOS device in the academic setting.

Dropbox

Free

Dropbox is the quid essential cloud storage. It has so many apps that can hook into it and save everything from documents to settings. It is cross platform, accessible from both desktop and mobile devices, and even stores revisions of your documents (this has saved my bacon on more than one occasion). If you don’t have a Dropbox account you are truly missing out. Having a storage solution that syncs between all your devices makes working on your iOS device while out of the house so much more efficient. Do yourself a favor and grab an account and then start loading up on apps that utilize the box.

iTunes U
Free

If the classroom is moving ever steady to the web, then iTunes U is on the forefront of this move. With so many schools posting lectures and classes material, there is plenty to digest on just about any subject you might be studying. Furthermore many larger universities are making use of iTunes U for current class material and recordings, so if you missed todays lecture, you might be able to pick up an audio or video version and stream it right to you iPhone or iPad. If you are already a user of iTunes U on the desktop, then the iOS version will sync all your subscriptions seamlessly.

Amazon Student
Free

Going to college is an expensive undertaking, and if you are going to school away from your hometown then is doubly so. Amazon.com is a one stop shop for all your college needs, and their student app is a great way to order your essentials and desires when they come to you. There is also a discounted Amazon Prime account during your tenure at college which is nice since not much else in college is discounted.

Terminology
1.99 iPhone / 2.99 iPad

Sure that dictionary your mom gave you will tell you the definition of a word, but how fast can your flip those pages. Terminology is so much more than a dictionary. Beyond the means and thesaurus, Terminology offers similar words that are more or less specific than the one you searched for. This is an essential app for any writing you may do. The best part is that Terminology is able to integrate with a growing number of iOS apps so you can access it right from your favorite writing/researching apps.

Flashcards Deluxe
3.99

One of your best friends when it comes to studying for a test is your flashcards. Being able to codify your study material into a concise set of flashcards allows you to quickly study a large amount of data. Flashcard Deluxe has so much under the hood to help with this endeavor. Its most powerful feature is the multiple study modes which let you spend less time looking at material you already know, and more time studying the cards you don’t. Flashcards Deluxe is one of those apps that will be an indispensable tool throughout your academy career.

My Graphing Calculator
.99
In the 90’s, a major cost of taking advanced math courses was the purchase of a graphing calculator. Those classic text instruments that we spent more time programming Tetris or Break Out on that actually doing homework. We the need for graphing hasn’t left, but it has gotten much cheaper. With My graphing Calculator you are able to create charts and post multiple lines with up to four different colors. There is support for exporting your results to a spreadsheet, as well as a wide variety of built in functions. Don’t worry though, this “calculator” has more than Tetris on it.

Writeroom
4.99
No matter what classes you take in college, you will most certainly be doing a fair share of writing. Now I don’t suggest you try to write out your final on your iPad alone, but there are many great solutions for turning the iPad/iPhone a versatile text editor. I personally do a large portion of my writing on my iPhone with the help of a bluetooth keyboard. To make the most of such a diminutive screen, you need an editor that will give you full use of it. Even that black bar at the top is screen real estate that you could be using for typing. Enter Writeroom, one of several good full screen editors that help you forget about the program and focus on the writing. It integrates with Dropbox, and offers super simple plain text environment.

While there is a sea of apps to sort through, we have at least cut out a slice that will give you some essential power to enhance you learning experience. Do you have an essential app you use at school? Let us know in the comments, or on our Facebook page!