Top iPad Apps for College Students

Justin Cauchon December 2, 2010 1

With the semester ending in a few weeks for most college students, we thought that we’d explore the best iPad apps for college students. The iPad is set to be a popular holiday gift this year, so it makes sense to make good use of it while in the classroom. We explored a lot of different apps that we thought would help classes and chose the 10 apps we thought were best.

1. iStudiez Pro ($2.99) – This app is great for keeping track of your schedule and assignments. The way that this app works is unique and very easy to use. The first step is to input your class schedule and professors. It gets as detailed as letting you enter the professor’s office hours and contact information. Adding assignments allows you to choose what class it is due for, time its due, and priority, You can also input your grades on the assignments and get your final grade estimate. There is also a Lite version of this app.

2. Instapaper ($4.99) – Ever come across a article or website that you thought you’d like to save to read another time when you aren’t connected to 3G or Wi-Fi? Instapaper lets you save the webpage or article and lets you read it later, even if you are not connected to the Internet.

3. Pages ($9.99) – Pages is Apple’s word processing application. Comparable to Word or Page on your desktop, Pages for the iPad is great for typing up notes or work. You can save and email your document to yourself or your professor.

4. Numbers ($9.99) – Numbers is Apple’s spreadsheet application. Similar to Excel or the Numbers desktop application, the iPad app allows for all the functionality with the advantage of a touchscreen.

5. BeeJiveIM ($9.99) – Keeping in constant contact with friends and family is a necessity for any college student in the digital age. BeeJive supports for AIM, Facebook Chat, MSN, Google Talk, MySpaceIM, Yahoo, and Jabber. We really like the interface on this instant messaging app compared to others we’ve tried. It allows for multitasking and alerts you of new IMs when in another app.

6. Netflix (Free with subscription) – The typical college student will procrastinate on every project and assignment. We know from experience that the Netflix iPad app is a great way to spend your time when procrastinating. The lowest subscription price is $7.99 a month for all instant movie content, $9.99 a month for instant movies and 1 DVD at a time. Netflix is a little too small on the iPhone, but it looks great on the iPad screen. However, remember that streaming videos is a data hog so you may want to resort to Wi-Fi when using this app.

7. Dictionary.com (Free) – This app is a great resource for English or paper writing. This app is free and gives everyone access to a dictionary and thesaurus right from their iPad.

8. Wikipanion (Free) – Even though Wikipedia can’t typically be cited as a source in college, it is still great for finding out quick information and getting the quick gist of a topic. Wikipanion does a great job of rendering the webpage into an easy to use app for the iPad.

9. Blackboard Mobile Learn (Free) – This app will only be useful if your school uses Blackboard and if it is a compatible version of Blackboard. However, if it does, this app will be of great use to you. It is essentially the basics of Blackboard’s web interface put into a well-designed iPad app.

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