Student life all over the world is quite similar when it comes to work. Assignments, project reports etc. are all what students are always fussing over. Below I’m listing down the most basic instruments that a student needs to continue their college education.

1. Netbook/Laptop

Being college students, mobility and compactness are the ultimate need. Of course for students, price is a major tipping factor other than the mobility and the sexy look that a netbook gives. What’s most important for a student considering a netbook is the compactness, size, weight and the general machine power. A 10 inch screen is the standard with a netbook so its the standard size which is pretty alright.

There are multiple options available in the market. Samsung, Asus, Toshiba, HP etc. all have netbooks available in the market at extremely affordable prices. If you think your netbook is not performing, consider investing in some standard hardware upgrades like RAM.

Of course, a netbook cannot compete with a laptop which has a bigger screen size, a more powerful processor and more storage space along with the addition of some nifty extra features like firewire, card reader, bluetooth etc. Not to mention a handy DVD RAM drive for reading and writing CD/DVD’s.  A laptop however carries a higher price tag which may be out of a students budget at times.

The decision to whether buy a laptop or a netbook obviously boils down to the option of what the usage is like. A media student might need a more powerful machine to work on their film and/or graphic design projects. A Macbook can be a handy partner in that case, however, the price tag on that would be higher than any other brand.

2. USB/Flash Drive

A flash drive is a student’s best friend. As college’s are adopting different technologies, a flash drive is essential. The days of flash drives that can hold a few MB’s are gone, today the lowest capacity if 1GB which is not enough to hold anything these days. A 4-8GB flash drive is an ideal choice, this will hold all your school work, some funny videos that you might want to share with friends and your personal “pretending to concentrate in class while listening to music” playlist.

3. External Drive

For those who spent hours and hours on their computers, there are bound to be mishaps. Wouldn’t it just suck if you spent 2 hours working on a report only to find out one wrong click or tap erased everything and OMG! you did not BACKUP your data! That’s where an external pocket drive comes in handy. Much like burning monthly backups on DVD’s and storing them in a cool dry place, a pocket drive is your best friend. It will help you on those lonely nights when ur system crashes and u have a report due the next day.

BACKUP your files! A 250 or 320GB pocket drive is sufficient for that very purpose. Another tid bit of wisdom is to install only the bare essentials on to your system and leave everything else on a pocket drive that can be easily hooked up to your netbook/laptop. This way, the chances of your system being infected by a virus or your computer crashing are rare.

4. Mp3 Player / Smartphone

Add an mp3 player to the list of bare essentials while walking around campus or just lounging around during your free time. A good mp3 player like an iPod or Zune will help your get through those long walks and extremely boring days when everything just seems dull.

On the other hand, a smartphone is a nice piece of equipment to have. With cellular networks upgrading their networks with Edge and 3G connectivity, staying in touch while on the go has never been easier. Most if not all smartphones are Wi-Fi enabled and all universities have wi-fi hot spots all around which can be used to log on to the internet.

Suggestion: Nokia E series is excellent.

5. Digital Camera

A Digital Camera will help you capture those cherished moments you share with your friends while on trips and at parties. However, a camera can also be used to capture those low moments when you’re face down drunk on someone’s couch or worst in a toilet

. All kinds of software

If you’re a local studying in a university overseas, your parents are most likely to be worried sick about your 20 out of 30 days because the world just isn’t a safe place anymore with all the crazy people running around. To put your parents mind at ease I suggest SKYPE

Skype is an amazing software which allows instant 2-way communication. Skype-to-Skype chats are free, whereas calling through Skype is extremely cheap. Don’t tell your parents though, just use it to call them

All the other software applications I was going to suggest are standard word processing and other applications which everyone knows about.

Hope this list helps, If you don’t have any one of these, GET ONE!

Happy Studying you delicious munchkins