Apple Apps for Students

The stock market may have you holding your breath, but there is good news for those who have already invested in iPhones and iPads: plenty of inexpensive and free apps can help students get through high school and college both more easily and more cost-effectively.

There are some great iOS (Apple's mobile operating system) apps available for students; we’ve chosen the best described in a recent post ("Back to School: 15 Essential iOS Apps for Students") by Zoe Fox on Mashable, a news site that covers digital culture, social media, and technology.


Useful for Everyone

• Documents to Go – This app allows students to create, edit, and share Word, PowerPoint, and PDF files direction on their device. Cost: $9.99
• Grades 2 – This app helps students avoid surprises by calculating what their grade will be, or what scores they need to earn a certain final grade. It can also calculate their GPA. As an added bonus, students will find the organizing feature with programmable deadline reminders useful. Cost: free
• iHomework or iStudiez Pro – Track assignments, due dates, and grade, and make use of programmable alerts. Cost: iHomework - $1.99 / iStudiez Pro - $2.99
• Penultimate – Students can use this app to take handwritten notes on their iPads using different colored pens, highlighting tools, etc. Notes can be organized in separate digital notebooks. This app is especially useful for classes like science or statistics in which students must draw diagrams. Cost: $1.99
• Snoozerr – For those who find themselves drifting in class, this app will record lectures for later review. The time-stamped photo function lets students snap a picture of the board, then easily connect the image to a specific point in the lecture. Cost: $0.99

Best for High School Students

• VocabPlus Lite – For great ACT/SAT prep; check out the 1,500 words on digital flashcards available here. Mastered words disappear from regular drills so students don’t waste time going back over what they already know. Cost: free

Best for College Students

• Amazon Student – This clever app allows students to scan barcodes and compare online prices to those in the campus bookstore. Cost: free
• Mint.com Personal Finance – Many college students find themselves managing their own finances for this first time. This app will help them establish and stick to a budget, and continue to assist them after graduation with credit history, retirement savings, etc. Information is PIN secured, so no sensitive data will be lost if the device is misplaced or stolen. Cost: free
• Papers – Ideal for research, this app digitizes papers, making printing a thing of the past. It works with 8 academic search engines, including JSTOR and Google Scholar. PDF files are particularly easy to read on an iPad. Cost: $14.99
• Stanza – English majors will love getting access to 50,000 free classic titles without having to travel to the bookstore or spend a dime. Many contemporary titles are available, too. Cost: free

Image used under Creative Commons by Paulo Ordoveza