Apps & Gadgets To Help You Survive Freshman Year, According To Actual College Students

If you're anything like I was as a student, you arrive on the first day of class with a fresh, monogrammed planner ready to be filled to the brim with assignments and exam dates (with a different color for each class, of course) and a resolve to stay organized for the entirety of the semester...which you abandon, without fail, by the third week in. (I mean, it's the thought that counts?) If this is your method, I see and hear you. But I'm here to tell you: It doesn't have to be this way.

Ahead, we chatted with 12 college students about the tech gadgets and apps that helped them survive freshman year, from note-taking apps to holy grail time-management apps to the tried-and-true iPad and Apple Pencil combo. Just remember, though — your dog can't eat your homework if it's synced up to the cloud. So you'll have to find a better excuse for that late paper.