Goodbye traditional college, hello College 2.0!

Welcome to a whole new learning experience where mobile devices are prevalent, and where hundreds of thousands of apps are now available to help you ace – or, okay, at least pass – every exam college life throws your way.

From taking notes in classes to uploading large volume journals onto cloud-based server to virtual conferencing, there is every app that you can possibly imagine that could help do away the stress in most of your college tasks. Regardless of you major, here are the top ten smartphone and tablet apps that are most recommendable to college students.

Evernote
Rated no.1 most valuable app for note taking in almost every apps review sites, Evernote is a cloud-based service that allows you to make notes, take photos, and even record audio notes, and categorize them into folders. Even more thrilling is that the app syncs across all your iOS and Android devices so you don’t have to worry about losing your notes at all.

Price: Free
Developer: Evernote Corp (evernote.com)
Compatibility: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, WebOS

iStudiezPro
If you have a red color personality, i.e. you can’t live a day without planning your routine ahead of time, this is your salvation. iStudiezPro is a calendar, homework diary, and planner in one ultimate tap. This app allows you to layout your class schedules along with the room and the teacher, track assignment due dates and appointments, and to monitor your grades for each module right from the app. This app is also built with the function to sync all information with all your other iOS devices (Mac, iPad). No more feeble excuses for forgetting to write your papers!

Price: Free (Lite version); $2.99 (Full version)
Developer: iStudiez Team (istudentpro.com)
Compatibility: iOS, MacOS

Dropbox
Dropbox is one of the most widely used educational apps among college students. All you need is Internet connection – you can upload photos, videos, and other forms of document straight from your mobile devices onto a cloud-based server, for which you are able to access from almost any other devices. Dropbox is commonly used for uploading large volumes of academic journals and lecture notes. A free account gives you 2 GB of storage. When you refer your friend to sign up for the app, you both will get another 500 MB of free storage (up to 18 GB) when they sign up.

Price: Free (with 2 GB storage)
Developer: Dropbox (dropbox.com)
Compatibility: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Kindle Fire

iTunesU
Probably one of the best apps offered free by Apple is iTunesU. This app collects lecturers, course materials, presentations, and other contents released by top universities around the world. You can download courses that you are interested in for free and learn pretty much anything between meteorology and French. For most courses, you may also attempt to take the exams the lecturers have set for their actual classes!

Price: Free
Developer: Apple Inc. (itunes.apple.com)
Compatibility: iOS 5 or later

Dictionary.com
This app seems to be highly demanded among international students and graduate level students, and some native speakers! Dictionary for iOS is your portable dictionary and thesaurus, with more than 2 millions word definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and sample sentences. You can use this app off-line, so you may still access the built-in functions to find fancier words for your term papers. The free version of this app is ad-supported.

Price: Free; $2.99 (ad-free premium version)
Developer: Dictionary.com LLC (dictionary.com)
Compatibility: iOS 4.3 or later

Chegg
Chegg is among the less popular app but it is a great app that comes in handy especially during the beginning of the semester. This little app allows you to rent textbooks for the semester or the entire year. Less the hassle – you can compare rental prices on the app with actual bookstores. You do not have to pay for the return shipping via UPS (some sites say the app will even help you locate the nearest UPS store!).

Price: Free (requires Chegg account)
Developer: Chegg (chegg.com)
Compatibility: iOS, Android, Kindle Fire

Twitter & LinkedIn
Embark on a new level of engagement with Twitter and LinkedIn. These two platforms are more than just social networks – Twitter is becoming a cool network to post crowd-source questions (such as ‘What’s the best operating system for college use?’), and as for LinkedIn, think of it as a Facebook with a professional edge, whereby potential employers can search for your profile and check out your proficiency in your field.

Twitter Price:   Free
Developer: Twitter (twitter.com)
Compatibility: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone

LinkedIn Price: Free
Developer: LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Compatibility: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone

TED
Look up inspirational talks from some of the most interesting thought leaders from all around the world. This app collects over a thousand videos in its library with more being added each week. You can either watch the videos online or offline, and bookmark your favorite speeches for later use.

Price: Free
Developer: TED Conferences LLC (ted.com)
Compatibility: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, WebOS

Spotify
They say all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Your breaks between classes will never feel the same with Spotify. This app lets you listen to its entire library directly from your iPhone for free (up to 10 hours a month). One catch is that streaming music does take up a lot of your data. So if you haven’t got unlimited data plan, make sure to connect to the college’s Wi-Fi network!

Price: Free (May upgrade to premium subscription)
Developer: Spotify (spotify.com)
Compatibility: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Symbian

Study Buddy
This may sound a little tedious, but having the Study Buddy by your side when you’re working on your homework keeps you focused on the task. Every time you take a break from your work – whether answering the phone or opening up Angry Bird – the apps records it as a distraction and logs a “Graph of Study Efficiency” to remind you how focused you really are. The app is best used when you are trying to get an assignment done or when cramming for exams. This is also mom’s favorite app.

Price: $0.99
Developer: Ezogo LLC (ezogo.com/studybuddy)
Compatibility: iOS 3 or later

More resources:

• 5 Apps College Students Should Use This Year
• Top 15 Tools and Apps for College Students
• The 10 Best Apps for College Students
• The 100 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen by You

This article is published in College Students Welcome Guide 2012 by Times Media.
Reposted from MajorFind (a startup web assignment in Fall 2012).

Image courtesy: Edudemic.com (top)