Many graduate programmes will require them nowadays. Check the prospectus or email/phone them to make sure. You may find it handy to have one anyway nowadays. It’ll let you do your work in the most pleasant surroundings rather than tucked away at a pc!

There’s some advice on graduate education available on http://www.graduate-education.org which I find often has relevent posts and also my articles on graduate education at http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/mcculloch may be useful.

Good luck!

Alistair

I’d recommend that you take a look at a Dell Inspiron 1720. It is a 17″ widescreen and that may be a plus if you tend to multi-task. They normally start around $800 but you should upgrade it a far as your budget will allow you. I just helped a friend spec on and we went for nearly the best of everything and it ended up priced at $1800 with $265 off ($1535). We opted for a 2.4GHz Intel core2duo and 2G RAM, 160G hard drive, 256Mb Video, Soundblaster audio, CD/DVD +/- Dual layer burner, wi-fi, bluetooth capable, wireless mouse. So I feel if you’re looking for something that will do the job for several years to come the Dell Inspiron 1720 is a good one to consider. Also, Consumer reports rated it 2nd to the widescreen Mac and the Mac was $1000 more ($2800). The Mac scored 77 and the 1720 scored 73. Not enough to be concerned about. Give them a look for sure before you buy. Hope this helps.

Laptops are inexpensive these days anyway. You can get a new one at a major store for less than $400 if you look around. Compare that to textbooks that may cost you an excess of $200 per class, you can see there is little argument for not having a laptop.

I would definitely advise a graduate student to invest in a laptop!

all community college students need laptops. so by the time your a grauduate student you should be on your second or third .