Technology How to spend $200 Tech Stipend?

[MDjourneyman]

My school gives incoming students a $2000 technology stipend? We can only be reimbursed for tech spending so there's no reason not to use the full $2000.

I've been using a dinky chromebook for the last year so I'm definitely looking forward to having a new laptop. I think I will likely go with a 13" MacBook Pro Retina 128 or 256 GB ($1300 or $1500 respectively).

How would you spend the rest of that stipend? I could spend it on an even more expensive laptop but that seems like it's probably overkill. I've never owned an iPad and always thought they were kinda silly. However, I'm realizing how much of my studying will likely be PDFs and powerpoints. I've always preferred having hard copies of slides/text to actively mark-up and take notes on rather than typing, but the volume of printing I'd need for med school classes probably makes that unrealistic. I've recently heard recommendation for apps like iAnnotate which could be used with an iPad and stylus to make for an electronic alternative to hard copies and a pen. Does anyone have experience with the quality of iAnnotate or similar apps / think an iPad is an essential study tool?

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[cbarne01]

Holy crap... I'd be more likely to break that $1120 (what??) than a macbook! Amazing tho.

 

[akellish1028]

I would go with the Surface tablet instead of the iPad, I think the keyboard functioning is a bit better, and I found it overall easy to use. Also the Macbook pro is great, I have the 15" one, graduation gift from high school, have had it for about 3 years now and love it.