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What to do before going to university?

Should I buy new stuff like certain technology?

And is there special things going on for applicants who are going into uni on 23rd of September (enrolment day)
Original post by NovaChro
Should I buy new stuff like certain technology?

And is there special things going on for applicants who are going into uni on 23rd of September (enrolment day)

All depends on your degree :h:
Had friends who do media/film so they require a good laptop and software. I just made sure to have a laptop that'll last three years as it's nice to have means to do work in your accommodation (rather than always having to study in a library etc).
Reply 2
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NovaChro
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Original post by CuriousShinigami
All depends on your degree :h:
Had friends who do media/film so they require a good laptop and software. I just made sure to have a laptop that'll last three years as it's nice to have means to do work in your accommodation (rather than always having to study in a library etc).

I am doing media and communication in UEL,and I am living at home, I have a laptop with an I3 processor and 1 terabyte of storage plus a computer with an I5 processor.

So I don't think I need any PC, but is there any other thing I need like perhaps other tech or another thing, maybe upgrade my Samsung s6 to a better phone or Nah?
Original post by NovaChro
Should I buy new stuff like certain technology?

Make sure you have a backup strategy, e.g. you save work on your laptop, to the cloud and onto an external USB drive, _minimum_ of three copies. Its really worth getting an external drive if you dont have one. Most universities have a "Zero IT Excuse" policy for a late hand in, so making sure you cant lose work and saving regularly so a dead PC cant lose you marks is a useful bit of preparation.
Reply 4
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NovaChro
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Original post by Mr Wednesday
Make sure you have a backup strategy, e.g. you save work on your laptop, to the cloud and onto an external USB drive, _minimum_ of three copies. Its really worth getting an external drive if you dont have one. Most universities have a "Zero IT Excuse" policy for a late hand in, so making sure you cant lose work and saving regularly so a dead PC cant lose you marks is a useful bit of preparation.

External USB drive like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/External-1TB-USB-3-0-2-5-Slim-Portable-Hard-Drive-for-PC-Laptop-Mac-PS4-XBOX/264330417814?hash=item3d8b521696&var&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&enc=AQAEAAADMKvsXIZtBqdkfsZsMtzFbFsbX3WcW5fmB%2Fx7ZbaZTyexOkXkExG8EATjLBWJfy6Itt2X8Vu0Y6TXzIgHA%2F5bpgWWR2lvoUUr%2FF4L7d08h4ziDS2p%2BT6FvdtliWgysUoM3GdBqoIT35TJN3F0UdNc3PbsXBuMPxkabDlM4BKaUKAtfToA65GV34Sm54PC0Wsvfj3A811HyG2Rth8IQYAOlAJdmLdJ3V2j5USWG09zzjikJgnPljPhmBab32RGN%2F6zQLg6wzOfZzIvYe9XPxoNujSaNASYWodIrC7xldg4jCONYZm4U8mXI5XPrH4Zrywbu8iMeIj%2FB1Qi5tIXw2ud0wip5mvL1%2FC0hKnRgSOV9eBhn373P18YeGcsBH8rUSbs3P5%2BQEGis2glq0GW016xM9LL8DYZz%2FkEN02pLRehYqOPy8MGVkLBSwZpPbi%2BR%2FEq4gPZHSxIb2LM2UAWPr0F6rs6MmkP7dHajPqzWlYWC%2BFZXBN1EEUu1P8UxOkVaB4YEMoMEFYh1B9SUCJPI4n8P27krwU1uIu1btwL3HXs%2FseAY3hdfBQKVM8Y0hwiual7NFPHYdQmkJjzHDWr0d9hOb4M4ZFeSfn8rFUI5BLH18FDeNsy9gBQAdCBl%2FOMSi4yXig1WfGAgNLj3wYmHxJaAQT%2FEnJ9GSR7SbzE0AQ0VdOETqWbqoh23XVSrRaE2DlvpPKycBWN3QCP%2Bsua3iJEC5YuZzt60xg8I5Ns0FDDop0%2FN4xAY9jYkA1iCXnV4yZ6z6NY4KYS3k0ccPh%2Fo4qdVkumN9qRFoRtf2UgCO9FMyD5hdhij6y2rI8WimJzp4oyEdNTUzY2I8YmlOckC8e%2Bp1jkvT%2FP0%2FzhqdGdU4ZRuPnW85AYocKRgHyIVfR5mWw8mVt55VZNN1uZSg13BrCfLdPhwdeSFgoo%2BrGmUdbHkToCBGhzrbtQCQU9%2Byj4QWQmS6lzX%2FPkDZwpOdabak4F0wdYzNg2XJAW8yW6DYIBWtqiiNoK9CrnBrQ5x9nAkIA3GzYDYeL%2BRoDWtPl1329UmF0Kb0qw67tGhqdDeJNHuC%2BRbcaQucoTINiloe9Zoh0zwQ%3D%3D&checksum=2643304178146745151d54564cc3906f00ade2576b6c
Original post by NovaChro
I am doing media and communication in UEL,and I am living at home, I have a laptop with an I3 processor and 1 terabyte of storage plus a computer with an I5 processor.

So I don't think I need any PC, but is there any other thing I need like perhaps other tech or another thing, maybe upgrade my Samsung s6 to a better phone or Nah?

I mean I don't think its worth it.. I've never been one for keeping up with like the newest phones. I mean I like a good camera but I've sacrificed it this time as I have a DSLR anyway :h: They all pretty much do same thing.. If you're on a good phone plan then I don't see need for change unless you're near end of said contract
Your laptop sounds good but obviously I don't study your subject so not sure how it'll work.
Original post by NovaChro


Yup, that kind of thing, technical detail is not too important here unless you need to save movies or big data sets, then USB3 is nice to have for the speed. At £20 you could have a couple of drives, one in your laptop bag, one "safe" in your room for a bit more resilience. If you think thats a bit paranoid, find a PhD student and ask them how many copies of their thesis they have saved :smile:.

Have a plan for how to name files and save multiple versions as you develop a piece of work to hand in. Storage is really cheap, and being able to go back a version or two in your work can be really valuable, particularly if there is any issue with who did what, when on a group project. Dont call files things like "my.report.docx", thats a really good way of both losing things and annoying the prof marking them. Nothing like an in box full of 50 "my.reports" to annoy you when trying to spot the one you need to mark. Better to name things like "Dave_Student_Lab_Report_3_May_12_2019_V5.docx".
Reply 7
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NovaChro
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Original post by Mr Wednesday
Yup, that kind of thing, technical detail is not too important here unless you need to save movies or big data sets, then USB3 is nice to have for the speed. At £20 you could have a couple of drives, one in your laptop bag, one "safe" in your room for a bit more resilience. If you think thats a bit paranoid, find a PhD student and ask them how many copies of their thesis they have saved :smile:.

Have a plan for how to name files and save multiple versions as you develop a piece of work to hand in. Storage is really cheap, and being able to go back a version or two in your work can be really valuable, particularly if there is any issue with who did what, when on a group project. Dont call files things like "my.report.docx", thats a really good way of both losing things and annoying the prof marking them. Nothing like an in box full of 50 "my.reports" to annoy you when trying to spot the one you need to mark. Better to name things like "Dave_Student_Lab_Report_3_May_12_2019_V5.docx".


Interesting, it would be great to make sure to properly name a file like that since you will easily recognize it that's a valuable tip, thank you so much for that!

And is the drive I found expensive? because you said I can buy a couple of drives with £20 I assume they have about 80gb storage or something around that?

Also, what is the recommended amount of external hard drive disk space to have for university?
Original post by NovaChro
And is the drive I found expensive? because you said I can buy a couple of drives with £20 I assume they have about 80gb storage or something around that?

Amazon has things like a "KESU 2.5" 160GB External Portable Hard Drive USB3.0" for £21 but for mission critical stuff you might want to spend a bit more on a name brand like Maxtor or WD.

> Also, what is the recommended amount of external hard drive disk space to have for university?

That really depends on your course. Unless you are doing something with film / digital art or generating really big data sets computationally you wont be creating much in the way of big files. Backing up your phone photos will eat up way more space than the average BSc project dissertation. I would start with what you can comfortably afford and see how it fills up over the year.

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