Can the iPad go to college?

I am currently a junior in high school, but i wanna plan ahead and get the computer situation straightened out. I am curious about the ipad, in a sense that it has potential to replace a laptop. Should i get the ipad instead, is what I'm asking. It has word capabilities, and PowerPoint. I can save both into folders, and send both to any email address. I can print them both* using blue-tooth. There is an optional keyboard. I can go online lightning fast. Need i go on? Whats your opinion: iPad, or Laptop?

it will never replace a laptop, iPad is in a category of it's own, you can use it for gaming, document creation, surfing and such and such..that's why it's getting bad reviews because people always compare it to laptops. Same goes with netbooks, they cant replace laptops either. I think it'll make your life easier, but you dont need one. It can eliminate carrying all your books, it can be entertainment too, by getting netflix, but it can also distract a student, with all the games and such. It'll suck while trying to papers, when you want reference something, you cant switch from window to window, on the other hand you can use it as a reference tool if you have desktop, so you dont to switch through windows. I dont have one, if i have extra money maybe i will. I have a desktop and laptop that fulfill my school needs.

The iPad could never REALLY replace a *computer.* I do think that if you have a desktop and an iPad you might be OK. The iPad can do email, and web surfing, and all that stuff, plus yeah, Pages and such will work great. Just know that it's missing a lot of capabilities.

If someone is walking down the hall, has some files for you, and hands you a thumb drive, what are you going to do?

If you had a desktop/laptop, you'd plug it in, transfer, and give it back.

If you had an iPad, you'd have to receive all your files through email, which could get kind of tiresome, no matter how good the email app is.

The fact is, the iPad will be good for school. It'll handle very, very basic computer needs without having to have a laptop. This should be prompted even more if you have a desktop you can transfer to college. But be careful, because if you're planning on trekking on an iPad ALONE, then beware of its problems. It's fast, its friendly and it has a good charge, but I think you're always going to have another computer, even if that computer doesn't have to be portable like the iPad.

Yes the iPad seems so perfect. It's small, light, very easy to carry around. But ti doesn't come with almost anything you'd need for college. Except a browser to research on the web. I just bought the ipad2 a few weeks ago with very similar intensions. I'll be starting graduate school soon and my first Mac laptop is getting ancient. Let's put it this way. Almost nothing is free on the iPad. If you have money to spare and you don't mind paying for lots of applications, and some monthly fees for certain websites that consider your iPad a mobile device, then go right ahead and buy it. But if you want to get an iPad as a replacement for a laptop/computer it is not going to be worth it in You can't work your iPad without having an iTunes account on a computer and having access to a computer regularly to sink applications up with. And all applications on the iPad are much much more rudimentary than applications on a computer, and I can say this from experience. It is hard to explain until you experience an iPad app and get frustrated not being able to edit things to a high degree or be able to do things you would usually be able to to. I often bypass the app and try to do things from websites.

In order to get less rudimentary apps you have to pay, and they still aren't the same as using a computer because, and I learned this the hard way, it is not a computer. It just isn't. College is two years away for you, please don't buy something so expensive that offers so little, and that you can't fix easily on your own. There is also no USB drive which will present lots of problems in college. Getting a keyboard is around a hundred bucks. A good case can be expensive too. Then you have to buy protective covers so you don't ruin the screen with your fingerprint oils. Then you buy insurance. It really adds up and up. Get a laptop. Please please get a laptop. iPads are for people who want to play tons of games and read books. I love Mac. I don't love iPad.