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Grad. School Supplies?


SNPCracklePop

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external hard drive to back up your collection of papers, data, etc.

flash drive - useful for sharing larger files with colleagues, carrying presentations, etc.

a dry erase board and markers - mount it on the wall, it'll make your life wonderful (sort of).

Good tips. I love buying school supplies - though am rather preoccupied with finding an apartment and a car:)

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I'm planning on buying a new laptop this fall as I head back to school. Macbooks are not in the pile for consideration so I'm looking at Windows laptops and Ultrabooks. The lightness of an ultrabook is really appealing to me but I know that I am simply paying $500+ for less weight and that uber portable size. Does anyone have any experience with an ultrabook? Is it worth the cost for less weight? Is there one you would recommend or that you think people should stay away from? Better to save the money and get a regular laptop that is a bit heavier but just as capable?

I will be using it for essays, running MaxQDA and other qualitative analysis software, downloading and watching tv and movies, etc. Not concerned with using it for gaming, but I do want a solid functional piece of machinery that will last. Thoughts?

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As far as writing/internet/movies go ultrabooks work fine--though you'll want to check your comfort with the keyboard size for typing, I'm not sure if they run smaller than a regular laptop's. I would check into the spec requirements for that analysis software, though--if it's crunching a lot of data it will need a good processor/RAM/vid card, and I'm not sure that something as small as an ultrabook will have that kind of processing power. My friend who is a physics grad student was basically given a top-quality gaming laptop by his department to run his simulations on.

My only experience with 'ultrabooks' is with the MacBook Air (not what you're thinking of, I know) but in general they are fast because they have solid state drives, which is what smartphones and tablets have--no waiting 30 seconds for a program to load or hearing the whir of the hard drive ramping up. My brother's MacBook Air literally starts up in 10 seconds, from completely shut down to opening a web browser or software program. They're also supposed to have really good battery life too.

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I am thinking of purchasing a desktop for next year to create a home office to get work done. I view that having a larger keyboard, external hard drive constantly plugged in, and a set stable working environment would be beneficial to get work done at home. I do plan on keeping my laptop for stuff on campus I may need to get done. Any recommendations for where to start for desktops?

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I am thinking of purchasing a desktop for next year to create a home office to get work done. I view that having a larger keyboard, external hard drive constantly plugged in, and a set stable working environment would be beneficial to get work done at home. I do plan on keeping my laptop for stuff on campus I may need to get done. Any recommendations for where to start for desktops?

I bought a desktop last fall for my last year of undergrad, as well as for some fun. However, the reason I bought it was so I could run engineering applications on it that I wouldn't be able to do on my laptop.

The reason I use the desktop though is for the monitor. I bought a 24" monitor, and I will only work on my 13" laptop if I have to since the extra space on the monitor makes working so much easier.

If you don't need the computational power of a desktop, I would advise just getting a laptop and an external monitor/keyboard/mouse and work that way.

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How about...lightweight road-tire bike recommendations in the $200+ range?

Vintage. You'll be able to get something pretty good for $200-300. New in that range is not even worth bothering about.

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I receieved information in my acceptance letter that the school requires students to have laptops that meet the technical requirements of standard statistical software (STATA). Does anyone know about this program? I have a macbook from 2008 and am not sure if I need to upgrade?

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I receieved information in my acceptance letter that the school requires students to have laptops that meet the technical requirements of standard statistical software (STATA). Does anyone know about this program? I have a macbook from 2008 and am not sure if I need to upgrade?

You can see here the minimum requirements for running Stata:

http://www.stata.com/products/opsys/

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I receieved information in my acceptance letter that the school requires students to have laptops that meet the technical requirements of standard statistical software (STATA). Does anyone know about this program? I have a macbook from 2008 and am not sure if I need to upgrade?

Unless you have something super ancient you will be fine; of course it is a statistical analysis program, so if you're dealing with large data sets you'd want some I think fairly modern. Dual Core and above will be sufficient.

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Unless you have something super ancient you will be fine; of course it is a statistical analysis program, so if you're dealing with large data sets you'd want some I think fairly modern. Dual Core and above will be sufficient.

Ok, thanks ANDS!. I'm assuming macbooks have dual core? (I really don't know much about my own computer apparently...)

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For your MacBook specs, go to the Apple sign at the top left of your top bar. On that menu, click "About your Mac" (I think that's what it's called) and it will tell you specs and what software version you have. In general though, any MacBook made in the last couple of years ought to be dual-core. I bought a dual-core metal unibody MacBook in late 2008 (before they started calling them MacBook Pro).

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Ok, thanks ANDS!. I'm assuming macbooks have dual core? (I really don't know much about my own computer apparently...)

If your Mac has the black keys and backlight, you'll be fine. The bottlenecks for those programs is running through data analysis on huge dataset's; you don't want it taking 5 hours to run a 15 minute job.

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Does anyone have any suggestions re: laserjet printers? Somewhat overwhelmed by the options and am suffering slight sticker shock (alliteration rules!).

We have 2 of the Brother MFCs - they copy, scan and print. One is in my husband's office at the uni (he is a prof and uses it constantly) and one is here at home. We had a Brother laser before these that was great too - printed off several copies of DH's dissertation. Brother is 'cheap' but we have never had any problems with them - solid and the right price.

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I have a Brother laser printer that I adore. I also bought one with a built-in duplexer, so I could save on paper and not have to deal with reloading things. It prints like 20 pages a minute or something, though slower when you're printing double-sided. I adore it.

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Where do you guys think I could get a really comfortable reading chair for under 500?

We inherited ours from my ILs but my mom has picked up some great ones from yard sales and salvage shops.

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