Is it worth it to get an ipad for medical school

I'm (hopefully) starting medicine in September and have saved a bit of money that I'll either buy an ipad with or use as a little bonus while I'm at uni. I've seen so many people say they could never use an ipad over a laptop as using different tabs, USBs and typing things up can be awkward on an ipad, but from what I've heard a lot of these issues have been made better in the new Pro models.
I do have an HP laptop that I could use but it is a little bulky and heavy to carry around, and apparently ipads can be amazing for notes and annotations on diagrams (especially for medicine).
Is it worth it to spend £700 for the ipad Pro, or should I save this money to use at uni as I can still use my laptop, or is there another ipad model that would be better for me?

Reply 1

username612415

21

Original post by sarazoltan

I'm (hopefully) starting medicine in September and have saved a bit of money that I'll either buy an ipad with or use as a little bonus while I'm at uni. I've seen so many people say they could never use an ipad over a laptop as using different tabs, USBs and typing things up can be awkward on an ipad, but from what I've heard a lot of these issues have been made better in the new Pro models.
I do have an HP laptop that I could use but it is a little bulky and heavy to carry around, and apparently ipads can be amazing for notes and annotations on diagrams (especially for medicine).
Is it worth it to spend £700 for the ipad Pro, or should I save this money to use at uni as I can still use my laptop, or is there another ipad model that would be better for me?

Wait until you're at uni and have done a week or two of lectures then decide, especially if you're planning to keep the money until then anyway. It's better to think "I wish I had an iPad" and then go out and buy one, than to think "I really didn't need this iPad" and either get no use for it or sell it at a loss.

Reply 2

Paranoiaa

19

I would say Mac would be better personally

Reply 3

vetstudent123

11

I have a laptop and an ipad for when i fancy doing things differently.

I like using the ipad for when i want to annotate slides in a lecture rather than type stuff out. It’s particularly useful for lectures that have more images than others eg histology. Then i use my laptop for lectures that will need more typing.

Reply 4

vetstudent123

11

Also just to add: I don’t think an ipad pro will be worth the extra money if you’re going to be using it only for lectures and leisure. I have a normal ipad and I’ve had no problems so far. Granted I don’t use it often for typing, I usually write with the apple pencil, but when I have typed (with a cheap bluetooth keyboard) there have been no issues.

Reply 5

jbrdodd

20

Cant really speak for med students but as a history students I’d find it impossible writing notes on an ipad in a lecture with the amount of information said each lecture. Probably better to just get a decent laptop thats gonna last you as you’ll probably end up using that more

Reply 6

vetstudent123

11

I agree, I meant not purchasing the ipad pro when the normal ipad or ipad air are like half the price and do the same thing. The ipad pro is only really useful if you use it for graphics or something similar but for lecture notes it’s not worth the extra money.

Reply 7

jbrdodd

20

I’ve used the detatchable keyboards for an ipad during lectures and they’re completely fine and can type just as fast on one of them like you can on a laptop, so I would probably actually recommend an ipad as theyre alot more lightweight as long as OP got an attatchable keyboard too

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 8

sarazoltan

OP

5

Thanks everyone! I think I'll wait until September and see what lectures are like and decide then if it would be worth it or no.

As far as I could see online Glasgow hasn't given out ipads before

Reply 9

sarazoltan

OP

5

Original post by vetstudent123

I agree, I meant not purchasing the ipad pro when the normal ipad or ipad air are like half the price and do the same thing. The ipad pro is only really useful if you use it for graphics or something similar but for lecture notes it’s not worth the extra money.

Is size the only difference between ipad and ipad air then? (After researching I'm not getting a pro)

Reply 10

sarazoltan

OP

5

Thank you! It was very helpful

Reply 11

vetstudent123

11

Original post by sarazoltan

Is size the only difference between ipad and ipad air then? (After researching I'm not getting a pro)

Off the top of my head: the iPad Air is slightly thinner and lighter with a screen that's a bit bigger. The battery power is the same, but I think the air has a slightly better display and more memory. But it's about £100 more expensive and if these things aren't too important then the standard iPad should be fine. It's up to you though what you're willing to spend.

The apple website has a comparison page (hopefully the link works): https://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/compare/?device1=ipad-air-2&device2=ipad-air&device3=ipad

I agree that it's a good idea to wait to see what your lectures are like. Everyone's slightly different. If you have time this summer then I would definitely have a play around with different styles of note taking and see which one suits you best, it will save you some time when you start as well.

Reply 12

sammyj97

19

Trade in your HP laptop and some money for a MacBook. I rushed into buying an iPad due to all of the aesthetic Instagram influencers... and I regret it. I’ve probably only used it a handful of times in the past 2 years.

Reply 13

FRS500

20

I use my iPad Pro and MacBook Air for totally diff things tbh. Both have their purpose academically as well as for fun.

I tend to use the iPad for charts/graphs/reading (to an extent).

Mac is for actual doing bare work

Reply 14

sammyj97

19

I study pharmacy.

I bought it to essentially go “paperless”. It took absolutely ages adapting from paper/pen to using the Apple Pencil on screen. The pencil was way too sensitive and I ended up constantly erasing and re-writing notes. Notes took x5 longer to write out and even then by the end I came to find that I hadn’t absorbed anything.

I also didn’t think about the cost prior to buying. If you’re planning to use the iPad as a replacement for a laptop, you’ll need the keyboard/pencil too which is an additional £200, this excludes the cost of any other accessories etc. plus any note taking apps etc. are ridiculously expensive (£10 for each one).

It’s way better (IMO) to invest in a MacBook or another laptop. I use/used it pretty much every day of uni. Greater functionality, more storage, multi-faceted (can use it for other purposes too like Netflix) etc. I’ve used my iPad only a handful of times since I bought it. It just sits in the draw collecting dust.

(edited 3 years ago)

Is it worth it to get an ipad for medical school

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