Between classes, work and daily life, college students often struggle to manage their time. Fortunately, as smartphones, tablets and laptops become commonplace, apps for these devices are available to help students stay on track.
Services like the iTunes Store and Google Play offer thousands of apps; here are the top 10 apps college students can download to stay organized, informed and entertained.
10. Minecraft Pocket Edition (iOS/Android)
The greatest invention since sliced bread, Minecraft is addicting and fun but usually limited to a PC or a laptop. With the Pocket Edition now available, students can pull out their tablet or smart-phone and lay down the blocks on-the-go.
9. Urbanspoon (iOS/Android)
Students are a notoriously poor breed, and the situation isn’t helped with the high cost of books and increasing tuition prices. While most campuses have a cafeteria and may be surrounded by fast food restaurants, the food gets old and repetitive. Mix it up. Urbanspoon helps people find new restaurants by different categories such as location, style, and my personal favorite: price range.
8. Zombies, Run! (iOS/Android)
Staying healthy is important but difficult. There are assignments due and work to be done, which does not make it easier to set aside time to relax, much less exercise. Zombies, Run! comes into play as you run (or ride your bike) while taking on the role of a zombie-apocalypse survivor. New goals, challenges and an interesting story are more than enough to help motivate even the laziest of students.
7. Netflix (iOS/Android)
The Holy Grail of streaming entertainment. While I recommend against binge-watching all of “Battlestar Galactica” during the school semester, it wouldn’t hurt to watch one or two episodes of “Archer” or “Adventure Time” in between classes.
6. Feedly / Flipboard (iOS/Android)
These apps are one of the best ways to keep all your feeds in one place. Both apps allow you to enter your favorite RSS or social media feeds (like “The Globe” Online), but Flipboard sports a nice magazine look to it and already has news feeds built into like sports and celebrity news.
5. Spotify / Pandora (iOS/Android)
Studying in a library may be useful, but the silence gets a little boring. Both of these apps help fill in the silence with customizable radio stations. Spotify does have a subscription fee that allows members to pick and choose their favorite songs and make custom playlists.
4. Evernote (iOS/Android)
Taking notes can get hard and messy, and to top it all off, it can kill trees. This app is an excellent aid in staying organized with notes and schedules. It boasts a multi-platform connectivity, meaning that you can take your notes anywhere on a desktop, a smart-phone or a tablet.
3. Dropbox / Google Drive (iOS/Android)
While Evernote does help with taking notes everywhere, it doesn’t quite help with the rest of the files. Forgot the flash drive at home? No worries, both of these apps are available on multiple platforms including Web-based clients, meaning that you can reach your files as long as you can surf the web!
2. Dictionary.com (iOS/Android)
A dictionary is a college student’s best friend, even if s/he doesn’t want to admit it. While programs like Word may have a spell-checker, the paper notebook does not.
1. iStudiez (iOS)
Absolutely one of the greatest apps actually built for students. This app may seem like a simple task calendar, but it does much more, like allowing users to categorize their appointments by class. Have a homework assignment due? Add it to your course, give it a due-date, rate its priority, add contacts as partners and receive timely reminders. It even allows users to bring in notes and other files like PDFs in order to have an entirely centralized and organized experience.
