Top 7 Mac Apps You Need For College

By Megan Krout

With the number of Apple products seen on college campuses, there are tons of apps out there focusing on education. I love my MacBook, and am constantly on the search for apps to help me do better in my classes, or to even make myself more productive. Here’s some of the top 10 contenders for apps you NEED for college. I’ve tried to make most/all of these free, since I understand that “broke college kid” feel.

1. Evernote (free)

You probably already know about Evernote, but you might still not understand the appeal. I understand, I’ve been there. But since it was free (yes, all their stuff is free unless you want premium stuff) I gave it a go. And I have never gone back. Evernote has a simple yet beautiful design and looks good nearly everywhere. It works on Windows technology and even your smartphone as well, so your notes go EVERYWHERE. Never again do you have to panic when you realize you have a quiz in class but can’t get to your notes. They’re always there, synced to every device. You can organize your notes into separate notebooks and sections, organize beautifully, and even share and work on your notes with others! When my friend was sick from class for a few days, I just emailed a link to my notebook. She could read through it without a problem. It’s a free app on nearly all platforms.

2. iProcrastinate (free)

This handy little app helps keep all of your courses, homework and tasks organized without losing all your paper scraps with assignments written on it. It even has “steps” that you can write in for each assignment. So if you’re pacing yourself through a paper, you can create different steps and check them off as you go.

Alternative: iStudyz Pro ($9.99)

I honestly prefer IStudyz as an app for school over iProcrastinate. I like the layout, reminder system and the ability to add exams compared to the more simple iProcrastinate. iStudyz syncs with its sister apps on different platforms and is perfect for college. There is also a free trial, so feel free to try both of these apps and pick your favorite.

Another alternative: Anxiety (free)

This one isn’t as good for college as the other two, but it is great to make quick to-do lists for every day activities that don’t have exact due dates. It hangs out on your desktop, but isn’t overly obtrusive.

3. Caffeine (free)

Not only do YOU need caffeine to get through the day, so does your Mac! Caffeine is a nifty little app that stops your computer from going to sleep when you don’t want it to. If you’re in a lecture taking notes and for a section of time, you don’t touch your Mac, it turns the screen off. Right when you need to take some important notes and the screen is black. Caffeine lets you turn it on from the top bar, keeping your computer from turning off until your tell it to stop. This is great when watching videos or movies, too.

4. Dropbox (free)

Dropbox is a great free online storage app that has some premium features. The basic free account is great for college, though. It’s basically all the extra space you could ever want or need to store documents (especially if you have the macbook air, with less space). Just drag and drop documents, pictures, folders apps etc into the box and ta-da It’s now available anywhere you go. You can share documents with others this way as well.

5. Adium (free)

If you love your online communication and chat apps, you need Adium. It connects with all kinds of messaging apps like AIM, Facebook, Twitter, Jabber etc. You can customize it however you want and supports extensions which lets you make it perfect for you. It’s free and easy to use. Give it a try!

6. Duolingo (free, online)

Even if you’re not in a language class right now, it never hurts to try another language. Duolingo is honestly one of the best language learning programs out there AND it’s free. You can even ask questions and get answers from other users. Even if you already are in a language class (I’m a German minor), this app really helps you learn more. You can take an exam for each section if you want to skip over it or think you’re more advanced.

6. SelfControl (free)

If you’re like me, social media websites like tumblr, Facebook and reddit tend to distract you from what you should actually be doing: college work. Luckily, someone has created an app to block you from these websites for a set amount of time. You cannot even try and get to the website until the timer ends. Not even if you delete the app.

7. Alfred (free)

I love Alfred. It’s like the spotlight search, except easier to use and more intelligent. You can make a key shortcut (mine is command + a) to have Alfred open up right away. From here, just type in your question, the app you’re looking for or even a word you want defined! I love typing define… (put a word there, obviously) and automatically seeing the definition without opening an app. It’s even customizable.

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