The iOS app store and Google Play offer thousands of free apps to help college students navigate their lives by managing time more efficiently and boosting the studying process. Though smartphones are already equipped to organize our lives with tools such as alarm clocks, calendars and maps, here are some ways they can make students’ lives easier and more organized.
Studying
Flashcards are one effective way to memorize information, but making them is time-consuming. With StudyBlue, students can use text, pictures and audio to create the perfect stack of digital flashcards for their classes. Students can also search StudyBlue’s database to borrow someone else’s pre-made flashcards.
For students working on a research paper, the RefMe app generates citations in MLA, APA and Chicago style by using the book’s barcode or title. Students can then export bibliographies to their email addresses.
To bookmark a New York Times or a Buzzfeed page to read later, students can use the Pocket app. Users can tag relevant articles and access them easily and quickly while they write.
There is no shortage of note-taking apps available for smartphones, but Evernote is one of the most highly recommended apps for students. Users can digitize and search notes they’ve taken on paper. They can also use the app to record voice reminders, create to-do lists and snap photos of notes and save them to Evernote.
Katy Ma ’18 said she uses Evernote to save important documents.
“Evernote is a way for me to save important documents like bus schedules and subway maps just in case there’s no Wi-Fi,” Ma said.
Organization
Aside from using apps to study for classes, students can also use apps to organize their hectic college schedules. Any.DO is a simple, sleek and effective app that helps students accomplish all their tasks on time. Students can review a checklist of daily tasks and set reminders for when and where those tasks need to accomplished with Any.DO’s geolocation feature. Users add new entries to their to-do list with the help of a touch-based interface or speak into the microphone to create tasks. Any.DO also synchronizes all tasks with other devices so that the list can be accessed from anywhere.
TimeHive also lets students create their own customized schedule so they don’t have to worry about checking their class website. Students can block out times for meetings and study sessions and share them with friends.
Budgeting
Living independently for the first time can seem initially freeing, but life decisions and fiscal responsibilities can get overwhelming. Mint is a secure budgeting app that syncs up with one’s bank account and sets up a personal finance page that categorizes spending into different groups such as food, school supplies and clothes. Mint helps students stay on their budget by sending them alerts when they are in danger of exceeding their budget or running out of money.
The TUNdeals app also helps college students save money by providing great deals and discounts from local restaurants and business on entertainment, beauty and fitness.
Health and Fitness
With all of the unlimited ice cream at the dorm cafeteria and free-flowing drinks, a fitness app can help student avoid the dreaded freshman 15. The MyFitnessPal app tracks calorie intake to keep one in check from the beer-pizza diet.
An appropriate amount of sleep is essential to maintaining a healthy body, but college students are notoriously bad with their sleep schedules. However, with the SleepBot app, users can select “start sleep” once they are ready for bed, and the app tracks their sleep schedules. The app indicates the user’s shortest naps and longest sleeping times. It will also remind the user about their “current debt” of lost shut-eye and advise them to take a nap.
The legal age for drinking is 21, but there is still a lot of alcohol consumption by first-year college students. No matter what your age, it’s important to be smart about drinking. The Wise Drinking app helps users moderate their drinking and lets them know when it’s time to call a cab. The app uses data such as gender, weight and height to calculate blood alcohol content levels according to alcohol amount, type, pace of consumption and time of last full meal. There are even buttons for contacting a friend or making an emergency call.
Sabrina Leung ‘18 is the Digital Editor who is plans to major in International Relations-Political Science. She is best reached at sleung@wellesley.edu or @sabrinatzleung on Twitter.
