Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Top 5 Best Must-Have Apps For College Students
collegecandy.com: College is rough; it’s expensive, stressful, and for the first time, you have to call to make your own doctor’s appointments. Luckily for you, I’ve put together a list of apps and websites that will have you saving money, increasing productivity, and even avoiding that freshman 15 (although let’s be real, the freshman 15 can happen anytime).
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18 comments:
I'm not sure how great any of these apps are, and I personally only use Venmo, which I think is definitely an essential app not only for college but just for life. It's broken down barriers for awkward situations where someone has to front the money for something, or it's just more convenient for someone to front the money for something and then for everyone to easily send money over to that person later on. It's made a lot of situations much more convenient, and it's almost become a total inconvenience when someone DOESN'T have Venmo. The rest of these apps are pretty silly though. Myfitnesspal is relatively popular, but relies entirely on calorie counting, which is a highly contested form of nutritional tracking. I don't necessarily feel like I need an app for "mindfulness", as I personally feel most self-aware when I don't have my phone in my hand.
Some of these apps seem really helpful. I think that the iflipd app can do a lot to help you save money. A lot of the times professors don't ask you to read the entire textbook and when they do ask you to read an entire book, its another supplementary book that you had to buy in addition to your textbook. Of course, as design majors, we haven't had to buy as many books as say a history major would, but in the two classes that aren't design based, I have had to get more than three books. The idea of the Proximity Matrix app sounds promising, but the article doesn't do a lot to explain how the app works. To me, it seems that this app is just a little more confusing than its worth to download and I can probably find apps that do the same thing but are much simpler. Also, the meditation app sounds like something neat to try but I don't think meditation is for everyone. The fitness Pal app that was mentioned in this video is an app that could be used by anyone and probably more easily used by people outside of college or upperclassman that don't have meal plans. I say this because a lot of the times you are getting food that you choose cafeteria style or restaurant style and those kinds of things don't have a label that you can easily scan to keep track of your food and calorie intake. The app Venmo I think is one of the most helpful apps included on this list because it makes money transactions between you and your friends way easier.
Definitely agree with some of these apps, particularly venmo. Here’s how I’ve used it in the context of Purnell, before or during tech, you can have one person to go out and either pick up or order food for delivery, and everyone can pay them immediately digitally through their phone number. It’s very smooth and very effective, making it easier to buy a pizza and not have to worry that nobody will pay you back for it. The organization matrix also seems like a great app to get for free and try, I don’t really have a great system right now on prioritizing tasks other than doing what I can now and doing what I feel is either most important or easier to do, and then I get as much done as I can and go to sleep and do the next thing on my mental list, the next day, but it’s easy to lose track of long term or low priority tasks that way. The way I see it, we have this technology on us 24/7, we might as well use it.
I wonder if the person writing this article is in college, as I feel that really the only useful app listed in this article is Venmo. Before coming to college I did not have the app, however, now I find it essential! It's an app that allows you to share money with people instead of physically having to pay someone back in cash. It makes transactions a lot easier and quicker. I enjoy it especially for Susan group projects and dinners. It makes it easier for the waiter and me. I think that some of the other apps are silly. If you don't have a way to relax without using a phone, there are bigger issues at hand, and I feel that nothing beats a written planner. Crossing things off is such a satisfying feeling. Myfitnesspal is a useful app that I have taken interest in before, however, sometimes the day gets away from you and it's difficult to track everything. I also feel that sometimes counting calories, though effective, is not the healthiest way to diet, or be cognizant of what you are ingesting.
Overall, I find it so cool that these apps are being created, and are seriously useful as most of the junk on our iPhones is irrelevant.
Well, I’ve had several people I know tell me I should get Venmo, but I never expected that an article I’m reading for class would also tell me to get Venmo. In terms of the other apps, iFlipd seem pretty useful. So far I’ve had an easy enough time of finding books from people who have already taken the classes I’m in (for example I currently have my roommate's psychology textbook) but I could see this being good. I’ve also been thinking about switching from my current to-do list system (which is a small notebook) to a digital system. Priority Matrix sounds like it could be good, though I do wonder where that 45 minutes claim comes from. Stop Breathe and Think sounds like a cool concept, but I doubt I’d use it enough. The only app I really don’t think I’d have much use for is MyFitnessPal, since almost all of my meals are from campus dining, so I don’t think the app would know the nutritional content.
These are some pretty solid apps, and I’m not using any of them. Perhaps I am behind on the times though, because I could use all of them. I think my hesitation from using things like venmo and iflipid comes from having to give them my financial information. My dad works in software and IT and he always tells me how easy it is for people to get ahold of your info, especially with new apps. Apple is better about that because they make their apps go through a lot to make it to their app store, but they are still susceptible to these kind of things, as we saw with the iCloud hacks. I would love to see what kind of insurances companies like venmo have against that sort of thing. On the other side of things, the Eisenhower priority app is pretty cool. I usually do all my prioritizing in my head and then put it into my google calendar, but I’ve noticed this semester specifically how likely I am to work on projects that excite me, even if they are due later. This app will be a cool preliminary step.
College is rough, stressful, and for the first time, you have to call your parents and ask them for money for art supplies (awkward). Thankfully, there are five little apps that will (not) help you overcome the seemingly insurmountable pile of tasks to do and the inescapable maze created by the new responsibilities no one told you about. Here are my opinions on the five apps the author so kindly promotes to college students.
App Number One: (in place of iFlipd) is the illegal pdf you can find on the internet. Why pay for textbooks weekly when you usually don't have to? You can also find older editions or borrow textbooks from friends or upperclassmen.
App Number Two: a planner, or a notebook, or a document on your computer to help you organize your new tasks. Honestly, as an article just posted on this same blog says, there is no all inclusive to-do app. Until artificial intelligence is created, you're better off sticking to the good old fashioned way they taught you to use in elementary, middle, and high school.
App Number Three: Stop Breathe and Think. As if I have time to do that. What is a higher priority in my daily schedule- eating lunch or meditating? It may have "legit changed" the author's life, but I need to eat.
App Number Four: My Fitness Pal? I personally do not have a problem with maintaining my weight. I actually have the opposite problem. I frequently forget about eating, sometimes going days without remembering. It's actually gotten to the point where I actively have to add meals to my to-do list (on paper) in order to ensure that I will actually take care of myself. Also, that is not how calories work. You can eat 2000 calories of sugar and junk and, at the end of the day, you're unsatisfied and you haven't gotten the nutrition you need to operate.
App Number Five: Venmo is actually extremely useful. Like many of the other students commenting, I happen to have and use this app. It's extremely useful for paying people back, as long as everyone around you has the same app (this is the only drawback).
I agree with the author on most of these apps, they look like they could be of use. A textbook app for a non drama student is probably a great money saver, I only hope for people like me who hate reading online can print pages with it. I have seen a lot of meditation apps, but non I personally find useful, I hope this one is geared towards a college student mind. I do however have a problem with venmo, I know I should just get it and use it at this point, but I can't make myself do it. I don't want my bank account numbers in an app that connects with Facebook, that seems like way too easy for people to hack, especially given this school. I also just found out that it shows who is sending money to who, like which of your Facebook friends are and people in your area, thats just too creepy. Sorry, but I'm going to be sticking to cash, because I also just wouldn't trust myself using it and never stop because it doesn't feel like your really spending money.
I question the usefulness of some of the apps in this article. Venmo is definitely useful but of all of these it’s the only one I have and the only one I’d really considered necessary. The textbook one might be useful for other people but I don’t really have a need for it personally. As for the nutrition one, there’s so many conflicting opinions out there on the proper way to do nutrition that it seems like labeling one app as the “best” is a lost cause, everyone is going to have a different opinion on it anyway. The time management one is probably the one I think is silliest though. Not that I think a time management app is a bad idea or that the Eisenhower system is a bad system. I just don’t like the way this particular app seems to have implemented it. From the description and the picture, it looks like it divides your tasks by topic rather than urgency and importance.
I can see some of the other commenters have a real issue with the apps listed in the article ("Except Venmo! Don't take away my Venmo!). I personally think this is a pretty good list. To boil it down to five apps, the author did not do a bad job. I personally use My Fitness Pal and Venmo, and am downloading Priority Matrix. I also have a different meditation app from the one on this list. I find each of these apps pretty valuable in their own way. The only one I'm not a huge fan of that I have is actually Venmo, for pretty snobby reasons. Sometimes it just annoys me that people can't be bothered to just pay people back in the normal way. I get that it's convenient, and that's why I have it, but when it first came out I was kind of like "...are you kidding?" I like My Fitness Pal a lot, just because it keeps me very conscious of what I am eating and how much I am exercising. Even if I weren't watching my calories, there's something about the act of inputting what you just ate that makes you really aware of what you're putting in your body. The one app on the list I didn't think was worth anything was the textbook rental. I promise there are other ways to get textbooks and I also promise that your backpack isn't going to be "so much lighter!"
The idea of how an app can “change your life” makes me wonder what has happened to this generation. If we are so quick to rely on an app to get through the day I am scared to see what is going to happen next. What if your phone suddenly dies or doesn’t work, do you just combust. That being said, I still think that it is pretty cool that people can spend a couple minutes using an app and suddenly de-stress because they feel more in control. That’s not to say I haven’t woken up some mornings and felt like I was going to fall asleep in my hand because I am so tired. So even though I don’t like the idea of using an iPhone app to de-stress I think I’m going to take 5 minutes and explore Stop, Breath & Think.
The next app that caught my attention in this article is one that I have used for the past two semesters. Venom is definitely something that changed the way money transfers hands for college students. At first I was very skeptical of linking an app to my bank account but I haven’t had any problems so far.
Over the last year or so I’ve noticed something interesting about my use of my iphone. The “there’s an app for that” slogan has probably gotten more accurate but I just haven’t used any for some reason. I only regularly use a few apps on my phone and many of them have sat unused since I copied them over from my last phone in December. For some reason the app ecosystem just became largely irrelevant to me whereas before I would often spend some time perusing the top rated apps in the app store looking for something to try out now I rarely download an app unless I actually need it then. I got uber earlier this year because I needed it and it has turned out to be useful several times since but I rarely ever just download an app to try it out nowadays.
I find venmo to be super useful and convenient, but I know people around me who are skeptical and choose not to use it. This reminds me of when online shopping first started to become popular, and I thought that it's crazy how people trust the websites enough to pay and they will ship your product to you. But now, we buy stuff online all the time. In this day and age where technology is more and more integrated into our everyday lives, it's hard to discern what to and what not to trust. I'm glad to see venmo on this article, but I'm also a bit disappointed because the other articles don't seem as useful since planning, relaxing and staying fit can be done without an app. Especially apps that are supposed to help with planning, such as #2 (priority matrix), I feel like would give you another opportunity to get more distracted by giving you another reason to be on your phone.
One of the things that bothers me most about modern day app marketing is how so many sources imply instant life simplification and task streamlining. Most groups that are advertising apps discount the fact that regardless of how user friendly and interface is, it still takes time and a robust acclimation period to integrate any system into one's life. Most of these apps are quite good; I've used several of them. But training oneself to actually pause during the day - right away - to input the data and information necessitated by these apps is difficult.
The textbook app is interesting, although I foresee difficulties in actually staying on top of what sections or books one needs and when exactly one needs them. It also become nigh impossible to go back and reference other sections if need be, something that I remember doing a great deal in math and science courses. As with anything, there are myriad considerations to be accounted for before electing to use - and stick with - any one of these apps.
Like basically everyone that commented on this article, I also am deeply in love with Venmo. Other than My Fitness Pal, I have never heard of any of the other apps. It is funny that one of the apps is a to do list kind of app, since I just wrote a comment on a different article about why I can not deal with to do list apps, since they never actually work for me. My Fitness Pal is a really good app, but Venmo is the best app for college students. I get furious when people do not have Venmo, because it makes everything so much easier. I literally can not imagine not having Venmo. It makes it so easy to pay people back and get paid back. As someone who never carries cash around, Venmo makes paying people back and splitting checks extremely easy to do. I love my Venmo.
Out of the apps mentioned in this article, I only use Venmo. Like most of the people who have commented, I really love Venmo because it is so useful to have when you have absolutely no cash on you. Now a days, more and more people are saying "can I just Venmo you?".
Especially in college where groups of friends will sometimes go out to eat and the food gets put on one bill, Venmo comes in handy by letting friends pay the person who took care of the check. Another app that I will look into after reading this article is stop, think, breathe. Advertised as a stress managing app, I feel it could be worth a try since we are constantly working on school assignments and basically just working really hard with very little breaks. It would be nice to have an app that can help me unwind and relax for a bit. Actually, a lot of these apps sound really neat, I wouldn't mind testing them all out.
Like most of the other comments on this article, I agree that Venmo is completely essential to college life, particularly as a Design and Production major at Carnegie Mellon. I got a Venmo shortly after coming to this school because I quickly realized that that is just how people pay each other now. As I said before, it is particularly helpful as a DP major. Susan Tsu’s basic design class throws so many different projects at the freshman class, projects that require multiple trips out to Target, Goodwill, Home Depot, Creative Reuse, and other stores. Most of the time, many of us are busy with crew, other classes, etc., but a few can make it to the store. Venmo makes it easy for you to ask a friend to pick something up for you, and you can pay them back with absolutely no hassle.
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