As a student you are going to the various tools and gadgets to help you through the day. However, as a student you do not want to spend too much money. So what are the pieces of tech used by college students these days?

Here is a short list of just that. Some of them are madly expensive but all the more necessary if you want to have a successful and productive time in college or university. Sometimes these so-called gadgets are worth the investment, and sometimes they are just part of being in college or university–so here are eight of them in no particular order.

1 – A computer

Ideally you should go for a PC because the PC can do more things than a laptop can. It is also easy to upgrade, and also easier to add things to for entertainment purposes. A laptop is a handy device because it is portable, but you often have to choose between entertainment and study. With a PC you can have the best of both, because you can buy one that is able to play games and also able to handle study software. A PC will also have a larger amount of memory.

2 – A Smartphone

This is a handy device because in many respects it is similar to a small laptop. It obviously cannot be used to type and work on things such as essays. But it can be used for the little conveniences that access to the Internet allows. They also have a number of apps that can help students to lose weight, save money, and find the closest bars.

3 – Noise canceling headphones

There are quite a few models that do this these days. They break down into two categories. The first is a category that will cancel out noise if you play some sort of music or noise in the headphones themselves. The second category is ones that will cancel out noise, even if there is no music or noise playing in the headphones themselves.

4 – An external hard drive

There is fierce debate as to whether an external hard drive is actually needed by students anymore. This is because the cloud computing has become so popular. The benefits of an external hard drive is that if your computer crashes or breaks down the you do not lose all of your work from your computer because you have saved a back up on your external hard drive. However these days, so many people trust cloud computing that they are happy to back up their work on cloud. The choice is (obviously) theirs.

5 – An E-reader such as Kindle

This is a handy device for a college student to have because it means they can read electronic text whilst sitting in a more comfortable position. There is lots of online text that students need to read and sitting at a desk, hunched over, looking at a computer screen becomes difficult. Mobile tablet devices such as the Kindle make it a lot easier to read electronic text over a longer period of time.

6 – A very loud alarm clock

Most students are going to put in a lot of hours into their schoolwork, but they are also going to put in a lot of hours into partying and staying up late. If a student does not want to miss any of his or her lectures then a very loud alarm clock is desperately needed.

7 – A small and secure lockable steel box

This is a small steel box that is secured to somewhere in the dorm room, preferably in a place that is out of the way and where nobody is going to see it. It is used for storing things such as bankcards and credit cards, and other sensitive information such as passports and driving licenses. Part of the reason for this is because you do not want your delicate information and documents to fall in the hands of malcontents, and also you need a place to store them where you know they are going to be safe.

8 – A headset and microphone

You can use this to speak on things such as Skype. It is a good way of saving money. If you use the headset with a microphone, then the other people cannot hear what the other person on the line is saying to you, and your mouth is the correct distance away for the microphone to ensure that your voice can be heard clearly on the other end.