Best iPhone and iPad apps for college students: Start the school year off right!

August 13, 2014

Looking for the best iPhone apps and best iPad apps to help you stay on top of things at college this year? No matter how far along you are in your college career, it's never too late to load up your iPhone or iPad with great apps that can help you study harder, organize better, and tackle assignments better than ever. Regardless what you need help with, there are tons of App Store apps to help. These are the iPhone and iPad apps we think no college student should ever go without!

Pages, Keynote, and Numbers

You spend a lot of time in college writing papers, preparing presentations, and collecting data. Apple's iWork series is available for both Mac and iOS. With iCloud sync, all your papers, spreadsheets, and presentations will stay in sync no matter where you are or what device you're working on. You also have the ability to export to .doc, .xls, and .ppt formats so PC users can open and share your documents as well. Since each app is available separately, you can download just the ones you need. New iOS and Mac owners can download all of Apple's iWork apps for free. If you have an older device, you can still purchase them for extremely reasonable prices.

If you're writing papers, preparing presentations, or keying data in spreadsheets, Apple's iWork suite is a must-have.

Pages for iOS - Free or $9.99 - Download Now
Numbers for iOS - Free or $9.99 - Download Now
Keynote for iOS - Free or $9.99 - Download Now

See also:

Pages for Mac - Free or $19.99 - Download Now
Numbers for Mac - Free or $19.99 - Download Now
Keynote for Mac - Free or $19.99 - Download Now

iTunes U

iTunes U is a great resources for anyone, whether your university supports it or not. If it does, there's a good chance you can find lectures and class material available for download straight to your iPhone or iPad. For those that don't have iTunes U support yet, it's still a great supplementary study tool that's sure to have tons of videos and lecture material on topics you're currently studying. You can sign up for automatic downloads for courses you're interested in as well which means you don't even have to remember to go grab new lessons.

If you want a good supplementary learning tool or a fallback plan to study topics you're having trouble grasping, get iTunes U.

Free - Download Now

Evernote

Evernote is hands down one of the best note taking apps available, with support for tags, separate notebooks, iCloud sync, and more. You can even take photos of a blackboard or syllabus and tag it accordingly for specific courses. With great syncing support, you can access your notes not only on your iPhone or iPad, but on your Mac, PC, and on the web as well. Evernote gives you a decent amount of cloud storage to start but if you find yourself going over or want some of the premium features Evernote offers, you can subscribe for more space and lots more features.

If you need a way to efficiently take notes and find them at a moment's notice, there's no better option available than Evernote.

Free - Download Now

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is a task and todo app that's available on almost any platform you can think of, including iPhone and iPad. When you need to add a task, just enter it and throw it in your inbox. You can go back later and create individual lists, add due dates, notes, and much more. Since Wunderlist lets you create lists however you'd like, you can set them up for each class, or for individual projects. If you're working on group projects you can even share lists between each other and receive notifications when new tasks are added, updated, and completed. Wunderlist is free to use but if you want more advanced features such as in-depth collaboration tools, you'll need to subscribe. However, the free version should be sufficient for most students.

For a great way to stay on top of homework and projects, look no further than Wunderlist.

Free - Download Now

See also:

Wunderlist for Mac - Free - Download Now

PCalc

PCalc is one of the only calculators you'll ever need on your iPhone or iPad, student or not. Whether you're a science, engineering, or computer programming major, odds are PCalc has you covered. With support for all kinds of conversions, scientific notation, RPN mode, and tons more, it'll cost you a lot less than a physical calculator and it's always in your pocket. One download scores you PCalc on both your iPhone and iPad.

If you're majoring in something that requires a lot of math, definitely check out PCalc.

$9.99 - Download Now

Dropbox

It's essential to have somewhere to store all your assignments and documents. From lecture notes to class syllabus' to term papers, Dropbox can store it all. When you sign up, you get 2GB of storage for free with paid options available for lots more storage. Dropbox will give you access to your files straight from your iPhone, iPad, or computer. With apps for virtually every platform and web access for everything in between, you'll never find yourself forgetting an important document or paper again.

If you need a central place to store all your media and documents so you always have them within reach, get Dropbox.

Free - Download Now

Screens VNC

While cloud storage services like Dropbox serve as a great way to access documents from anywhere, what about using apps on our desktop? And let's face it, we don't always remember everything and there may come a time when you forget an important assignment in a folder on your Mac. Screens lets you remotely access your Mac or PC right from your iPhone or iPad as long as it's connected to the internet. Just create an account and set up Screens on your computer. Next time you forget something, just take control of your desktop and email it to yourself in seconds.

If you want remote control of your desktop computer no matter where you are, Screens VNC is what you want.