The Printer Dilemma
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 by Laura Schluckebier 
Printers: The Bane of College Students' Existence. Image courtesy of Flickr user WilliamHook and licensed under CC 2.0 BY-SAAs everyone is gathering up their belongings to get ready to go back to school, there are a few things that students debate about bringing. Your gaming system? Hell yes. Your entire DVD collection? Probably just a few of your absolute favorites. That horribly ugly sweater your weird aunt gave you for Christmas last year? Pass.
But what about a printer?
Honestly, just about every college student can survive without a personal printer. In fact, for most, it’s easier and less expensive to use the university printers. Colleges should (I say “should” since I have, in fact, only printed at one college) have a fairly good and reliable printing system. They’re well-aware that students are printing all kinds of review packets, homework, and papers. Printing with university printers will cost you a small sum, but it usually isn’t a terrible fee. At Trinity, it costs about $.09 per page, so unless I’m printing a twelve page essay (which I occasionally do), it’s not even going to cost me over a dollar.
Using university printers also release you of printer responsibility and maintenance. It is a pretty well known fact that printers suck. They run out of ink, paper, and the will to print far too often and are just generally a pain in the ass. However, if you just use the university printers, you don’t really have to deal with any of the shit that a printer gives you. If a university printer decides to be a bitch and ceases all printing operations, sure, you’re annoyed and disgruntled, but you don’t have to be the one to fix it. You can just move on to the next printer and print your stuff with that one. You don’t have to buy ink, you don’t have to buy paper, and you don’t have to slam your head into the wall every time your printer sends you an error message.
In addition to the wonders of using university printers, we all know at HackCollege that college is progressively embracing the digital world. Duh. Soon, printers and hard copies of essays and other homework may be completely obsolete. In some of your college classes today, your professors may not even require a printed version of papers and prefer you to simply email them your work. While this is another reason to not have your own personal printer, most professors will probably prefer hard copy versions of your work and so you’ll still need to have a way to print most of your stuff.
If you can manage to get by without having your own personal printer, I would highly recommend it. It’s easier and requires less work on your part. However, for some students, having a personal printer is actually beneficial. While I use the university printers for most of my major printing needs, I actually do have my own printer that I use from time to time. If you’re a student who doesn’t plan on writing a lot of long essays (science, math, computer majors, for example), I would totally recommend not bringing your own printer. However, for those students who write paper after paper all semester long (English, history, communication majors, for example), I find it useful to have a personal printer. After I’ve written a paper, I like to print it from my printer and edit it with a pen in my room. I’m already in the writing mood and I feel like leaving my room, going to the library, printing my paper, and walking back to my room kicks me out of the working groove I have going on.
However, whether or not you’re writing papers or just printing homework, if you decide to make the commitment and bring a printer to college, there are a few things you can do to help keep your printing stresses to a minimum. First, if you’re printing a paper to edit, either print it double sided or print it on the back of old papers or homework. It cuts down on the amount of paper you buy. And it’s also earth-friendly, and we happen to like the earth. Second, when buying ink, look for ink that comes in recycled cartridges. Instead of buying brand new cartridges, you can buy cartridges that have already been used but have simply been refilled with ink. They’re about half the price and work just as well. Finally, if you’re going to print a large document, use the university printers. It’s better to use the university ink and paper than your own for large review packets or essays.
One rule of printing that you should always keep in mind is that you should never leave printing to the last minute. Printers, even university printers, are very sensitive and usually choose to mess up when you need them to work the most. Deal with printer issues the day before your paper is due and not the hour before.
Do you have your own printer or do you prefer to use university printers? What would you recommend?
Reader Comments (6)
Good advice, but you alluded the the reason why I keep a printer in your last paragraph: it's easier and more reliable to print off a paper at home than at the library.
Of course, I could just finish the paper earlier, but procrastination is really "I work well under pressure," right? :)
As a photography student, I find it immensely useful to have my own printer. I use a Kodak ESP 7. Kodak aren't renown for their reliability or quality. However, they are damn cheap. Their ink is some of the cheapest on the market, but more importantly they also sell very cheap photo paper that matches up with the colour profiles built into the printer. This means that whilst my peers can't afford to print out images on proper paper for every tutorial on their 6 or 8 cartridge photo printers and manufactuer's paper, I can. My actual photo printing I get printed elsewhere, because it's cheaper than buying all the gear myself, as this article touched on.
Also, I'm used to reading this blog via Google Reader. Wow, how small is the text on here? And so wide? Can't say I'm a fan of your design, although the content is good.
I love my HP P1006, a cheap (~$100) laser printer. Just remember to give the toner a good shake every now and then, and you're good to go. It has great support for OS X, Windows, and Linux.
Sadly, I think it's been discontinued :(
Although I would agree with this for the most part, I bring a printer to school because I am an RA. I print almost all of my school work on the school printers (free printing here), but as an RA I often have to print last-minute posters and signs. However, when advertising an event, I'll make a colorful poster, print it once from my printer in color, and then take it to one of the faculty color copiers instead of using my own ink.
I pay .03 cents per page an the college
I didn't own a printer when I was at my previous college because they had a wireless printer in every classroom (you couldn't print DURING class because of noise, but if you got there 10 minutes early or stayed after class you could print provided you had a laptop). There were also a few printers in computer labs that you could access wirelessly or through the lab's computers. A fee for that was taken directly from our tuition, but after that, it was free and unlimited so obviously I didn't need one because it was so well set up.
At the school I am now, there are some printers here or there, but it is a big pain in the butt to use them, and cheaper to print at home, especially since I've purchased a laser printer.