Best products from r/NCSU

I lofted my bed last year, which I definitely think is one of the best ways to get the most out of your room. I ended up getting a bunk buddy, which is basically a little nightstand that attaches to your bed. It was probably one of my favorite dorm items I bought. Also, I bought a hanging organizer that I put on the ladder of my bed that I didn't use. It turned out to be a really good place for me to put assorted items, binders, or whatever I didn't have a designated spot for. This really helped as it kept a lot of random junk from accumulating on my desk (links below to give you an idea, not exactly what I had but same concept). Another thing I bought was a medium sized whiteboard that I put on the inside of the loft on the ladder that I didn't use. It was a really good way to keep track of assignments, to-do lists, etc.

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The best tip I can give you is keep your space clean. A clean room makes it feel a whole lot bigger than it actually is. Obviously there will be test weeks and whatnot where you won't be able to clean as much, but generally try and tidy up whenever you have a couple of free minutes. Not sure about how others fell, but when I kept a clear room, especially a clean workspace, I really found that I was a lot more efficient and felt a lot less crowded. Also (depending on how much/little your roomate cares), I always noticed that when I kept my personal side of the room clean, my roomate did as well. I feel like it kind of encouraged him to keep his area clean and overall made the room feel a lot more spacious.

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Also cut a pool noodle and put it over the bottom of your bed frame. Probably banged my head 20 times getting up from my chair in the first few days before I got one.

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https://www.amazon.com/EZOWare-Organizer-Hanging-Storage-Bathroom/dp/B07CH2KXSL/ref=sr_1_22?crid=J3XMR935XL30&keywords=dorm+bed+organizer+hanging+pocket+bag&qid=1550633712&s=gateway&sprefix=dorm+bed+hang%2Caps%2C155&sr=8-22

https://www.amazon.com/Vencer-Shelf-Bonus-Phone-Room/dp/B07CV4T4BF/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=bunk+buddy&qid=1550633741&s=gateway&sr=8-15

If you're on a budget, I just picked up this laptop and definitely recommend it. I did a lot of research beforehand and it's the best thing out there in this price range. It's running a Ryzen 5 CPU, which means it's got some impressive graphics capability for your CAD work. Plus it's a 2-in-1 and pretty light, so it's also great for note taking in class.

Another major benefit, especially if you're engineering and have some technical skills, is that the RAM, battery, and SSD are user upgradeable, which means you'll be able to keep this laptop running strong for years with a couple cheap upgrades when it starts to slow down.

It's not as fancy as other laptops out there, the build quality is where they had to make some compromises. Plastic body, speakers arent amazing, not the best screen out there, and the battery life is about 5-6 hours. But it's Lenovo, so it's still pretty solid, the keyboard feels pretty good and the trackpad is as good as anything out there under about $900.

Overall there's nothing near this powerful out there at this price range, especially if the 2-in-1 touch screen matters to you. But whatever you choose, I would definitely recommend something with a discrete graphics card or an AMD Ryzen processor like this one if you're going to be doing graphics intensive work like CAD.

**note: if you'll be doing a ton of MATLAB however, MATLAB is optimized for Intel and runs a lot slower on AMD processors, so that may also be something to consider.

Then definitely go for it.

Pick up (or get it from the library) a copy of Introduction to Flight by John Anderson (you can also get the international version on ebay for like $40-50). It was (is?) the book used in MAE 262, which would be your first aero specific class. It's actually a useful text even if it's not still used. We ended up looking up a lot of things in it during senior design.

Regardless of which major you end up in, get involved with a club like the Aerial Robotics Club, Rocketry, AIAA, ASME, Wolfpack Motorsports. They all look good on a resume, especially if you end up in a leadership role, and they're also lots of fun and a great way to put what you've learned into practice and a way to learn things you wouldn't learn in class. ARC and Rocketry would also be useful for aero senior design.

Also, get a co-op or internship as soon as possible and keep getting them until you graduate. They help a lot when looking for a job.

If you end up in aero, AIAA meetings are a great place to meet and network with people from industry. They have speakers fairly often and sometimes the speakers are there specifically to recruit.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

The undergrad department head, Dr. Lubischer, doesn't really pick the book... the course coordinator does. That would be Dr. Black and Dr. Niedzlek-Feaver. I've worked closely with both professors and they're trying to save students money. Dr. Black often makes the book completely optional in her DE course (the one I am most familiar with), and will provide material from it in lieu of requiring the book itself. As far as in class courses- it is generally helpful but even in her advanced courses (BIO 370/375) she never required the text. If you knew someone with it you could photocopy any important pages, or you could share books.

But why Brooker at all? Because it's an improvement from Campbell's Biology. Campbell's is a better textbook with more information, but is much more expensive. New editions, iirc, are around $250+ with the online section/CD/thing. And there is a new edition every ~2yrs. And some students really do learn better when they can read the text in conjunction with lectures, not to mention the university itself requires textbooks for most 100 level introduction courses. It's meant to be a stepping stone from high school level material into college level, and most students cannot adequately learn a broad topic like general biology from lectures alone.

Brooker is a much cheaper and easier to access textbook, and I agree with the department on their choice. However, you don't ever want to buy it new unless you have to for some god-awful reason. You can buy this book for around $3 + shipping on Amazon.

And I'll be honest with you. I've taught this course (and may be teaching it next semester, hi prospective students!), and the book is not required. You can get it at the DH Hill Circulation desk when you need it for tests or what not- because I know you won't be reading this every day, I know I didn't. You could also use CK-12, or a copy of Campbell's (which are super cheap used). Why those books? Well... I helped develop some of the 181/183 sections and those are the books we used to correlate information we wanted to add into the course where Brooker was lacking.


If you want to be mad about pricing, be mad about the lab manual. But remember, the money made from that goes back into buying supplies for that semester or next semester's lab, if there is any profit Dr. Black sees very little. The Biology department is POOR AS SHIT right now, which is why I get paid peanuts this year vs. 3 years ago. Specimens and most other bio lab materials are much more expensive than chemicals and can only be used once, it really sucks.

You're knee-deep in nit-pickery, but I'll continue arguing anyway... The bottom cover is removed with 10 "regular old Philips head screws", which opens up access to pretty much everything.

The battery is secured with Tri-wing screws which can also be found, for example, on the bottom of Nintendo game consoles. They're uncommon, so manufacturers put them places where they don't want average users opening easily. The battery is not designed to be user replaceable (but of course, is), just as Nintendo products are not user serviceable. By doing away with the molded plastic, electrical contacts, etc. around a typical laptop battery they saved some space, and the cost is that when I order a replacement battery I'll need to get a tri-wing screwdriver. Not a big deal unless I wanted to carry around a spare battery for swapping, which is not my use case, but if that's yours then clearly the unibody Macbook is not for you.

I'm not sure where the torx screws are, I'm pretty sure the hard drive is just philips screws (RAM is secured with the standard side clips). Torx T6 is the standard torx size for electronics (e.g. if you wanted to take apart a hard drive, they're all secured with T6 screws). They're less common than philips and flathead screws, again usually to make it difficult to the user (maybe that's my conspiracy theory) but also the screws apparently resist cam-out better than philips and flathead. I have a torx set and am pretty surprised you've never heard of it.

I have no idea what you're talking about with the fans. They work just as efficiently as any other laptop fans, and they aren't blocked by my legs whereas my last laptop blew out the bottom and sides so I had to position the laptop so that the vents weren't blocked by my legs. I see it as an improvement over the typical PC design. And your claims aren't backed by experience.

Here are some objective points about the Macbook compared to a PC laptop that you could have pointed out... Plus my opinions/experience about them.

• No home/end/pgup/pgdown keys - instead use cmd-left/right (or fn-left/right) for home/end and fn-up/down for pgup/pgdown. I use home and end all the time while typing/programming and cmd-left/right don't bother me at all. Also in OSX, alt+left/right function as ctrl+left/right in Windows/Linux, so you use your thumb instead of pinky which I find more comfortable. Same with Cmd+anything, which mostly replaces ctrl+stuff in Win/Lin (e.g. cmd+c is copy, etc.).
  
• No built-in monitor ports, you need to buy and carry around an adapter. I carry my VGA one everywhere, "just in case". This is becoming more standard in PC laptops too - e.g. Dell has moved to Mini Displayport and HDMI.
  
• 17" model doesn't have built-in SD card slot; I bought an Expresscard memory card reader (this one) that I leave in all the time, it's flush with the edge of my Macbook so it's no downside to me.
  
• No eSATA. If I needed it I would get an Expresscard for it. 15"/13" MBPs (with no expresscard slot) would be SOL, but most drives with eSATA also have USB option.
  
• No user-serviceable battery, mentioned above.
  
• No touchpad button - actually the whole touchpad is a button, which is completely awesome. Click with two fingers for right click. And OSX's smooth scrolling is AH-MAY-ZING. The touchpad is far superior to any PC touchpad I've used, ever. Night and day.
  
• No USB3. If any of my devices had USB3, maybe I'd be sad.

The E101 "handbook" is made by NC State, so yeah, that's only going to be on the bookstore. That thing was useless though, and I'm pretty sure I just threw it away.

For EC 201, you might have been told to buy a custom book. I did and my friends who took it also did. When the teacher makes a "custom" book, you have to buy it through the bookstore. You also can just buy the standard version, but the organization of chapters may be different (and often, some chapters are taken out of from the standard version). But then again, since the professor usually removes stuff, it may actually end up cheaper to buy the custom one.

As for your Calc 3 book, is this the one who were told to buy: http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Concepts-Contexts-Stewarts-Series/dp/0495557420/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376233469&sr=8-1&keywords=stewart+calculus+concepts+and+contexts. That's the one I used last year. Not sure why you couldn't find that.

But for future reference, don't buy your books before classes. I did freshmen year and it was a mistake. If you are reasonably smart, you will never open your EC 201 textbook. I only used my Calc 3 book a couple of times as well. I did great in both classes and could have done so without the books easily.

Bring a small fan like this. Dorms can get really hot, plus its great to use as white noise to focus on if people are being loud when you're getting to sleep.

I would also get a foam mattress topper. Not the terrible egg crate style, but temurpedic type memory foam. (Doesn't need to be tempurpedic brand obviously.)

Pretty much every building on campus seems to have has some sort of lounge area. You're not going to find anything ultra-special, but I find that it doesn't really matter once you get sucked into your studying anyway, you're not going to be aware of your surroundings.

If you want to be adventurous, and if you have a mobile hotspot and a good laptop battery, get a $15 hammock on amazon and find some trees to pitch up in for a while. There's plenty around.

Australia uses different voltage and plug types, so you'll either need to get something and take it with you, or buy something while you're there.

I Just got back from a family vacation in Australia. I bought this before I went:

BESTEK Portable International Travel Voltage Converter 220V to 110V with Interchangeable Worldwide UK/US/AU/EU Plugs + 4 USB(6A Max) Charging Ports for iPhone, iPad, Samsung, Tablet https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MSTG93S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_nuF-wb72SHF4C

It worked out perfectly for charging my MacBook via the AC, and then multiple mobile devices via USB.

Let me explain why books are a waste of time.

Literary fiction is valuable but you don't want to be the guy who carries IJ everywhere, so it's best you avoid it.

Philosophy is also valuable but the vast majority is wrong and you'll sound like a neckbeard if you try to talk about it with anyone.

Poetry is at best shitty paintings and at worst shitty self help.

Genre fiction is fun but stupid and too many people base their identities around it, and you will be grouped in with these people. This includes comic books.

History is genre fiction.

True crime is history.

Current events books are propaganda.

Conspiracy writing combines the worst of history, genre fiction, true crime and current events.

Self-help is all bullshit, just join a religion which will not only provide a sense of security but also give you friends and free food.

Science writing is a waste of time b/c there is probably another scientist who can write a book about why the book you're reading is wrong, and even if there isn't it's PBS-tier shit for old people/your BIO 181 professor.

Business is for psychopaths who think that Elon Musk is a good person and tips have to be earned. It's also beloved by dipshits who think money defines success. These two are frequently the same person.

Cook books are comfy but do you really want to do dishes? No.

Religious books are a weird mixture. Sacred texts for primary world religions can either be believed or classified as literary fiction and valuable either way. Sacred texts for cults like Scientology or new age shit is bad genre fiction. Books about religion are propaganda.

You may think I've trashed every book imaginable, but I haven't. This book https://www.amazon.com/Dog-Encyclopedia-DK/dp/1465408444 is excellent. It has pictures of over 400 good boyes and girles and tells you which treats they like best. I cannot recommend it enough.

There are a few engineering folks in there from time to time. It will be very heavy on research and behavioral methodology. Not much math at all (though you could vary that individually depending on your project). I think it would be valuable to an engineer and would certainly broaden your skillset in a meaningful way.

Here is a classic by Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things. It's not strictly human factors, but gives a palatable insight into how HF researchers approach problems.

Actually I'm thinking about bringing in my Keurig Mini. I think we should have unlimited free coffee, I'll make a statement with it. I'm not joking, I'm legit tempted. https://www.amazon.com/Keurig-K-Mini-Single-Serve-Coffee/dp/B07GV2S1GS

> I’m sorry

I forgive you. It was an event we had here from the writer and illustrator who brought us toni the tampon. Theres even a coloring book!

If you're interested, these are the ones I used on my keyboard. I think the Razer blue switches are a little different than the standard ones, but I don't see any reason they wouldn't work with how similar the two are.