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Students and their parents are coughing it up for college
Technology is becoming the college student’s best friend. From tablet pcs and flash drives, to cell phones and iPods and scientific calculators, Best Best and their parent’s credit card are a match made in heaven.
Checkout this article from Post-Gazette.com on today’s student and technology. Image by Daniel Marsula, Post-Gazette
College students have become the creme de la creme for electronics makers and retailers. They are expected to spend more than $10.5 billion gearing-up for campus this year, according to the National Retail Federation.
Back to school isn’t what it used to be 20 years ago when a Sony Walkman cassette player and a leather day planner were considered high-end accessories.
Today, top-notch technology — such as the wireless Compaq Tablet PC that Chatham College is distributing to incoming freshman for the second year — is required in some classrooms.
Chatham freshmen walked away with their computers for less than half what it’s retailing, thanks to a $530 “technology assessment” fee tacked on to their tuition bill. Still, sales of laptop computers and the other electronics must-haves such as digital cameras, flat screen televisions, flash memory devices and Sony Xboxes, have pushed this year’s spending on back-to-school electronics up more than 27 percent from last year.