Thanks for all the advice, but I'll be a 2L this year.
When were you at law school? Not one of my professors got mad when we were typing. My first semester I was the only one taking handwritten notes until I decided to bring in my laptop everyday like everyone else and take notes on my computer.
And no you don't need to be able to highlight to be able to study effectively. But then I've got amazing reading retention.
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Originally Posted by RickyMaveety
No. Not at all. Also, I think a tablet is better than either a netbook or a regular notebook. My reasons being, the text is too small to read with the full page view on most netbooks, and most students, while in class need to see the full page while in class, without zooming in and out to read.
In fact, a two page view that you can actually read is very helpful. Also, with either a notebook or a netbook, the tendency is to try and type your notes. There isn't all that much space on the typical law school classroom desk, and some profs get really pissed off if they see a bunch of students typing. (I know this first hand. Many profs will assume that, if you are typing on a notebook PC in class, you must be writing emails to your friends, or twittering ... certainly NOT paying attention to them).
A tablet PC will usually allow you to take handwritten notes in class). Very easy to have your PDF text in one window, and another window open in which you can hand write class notes. This part is true of both medical school and law school. And, profs in both types of school may have a small hissy fit about typing in class. They are perhaps a bit behind the times, but they have a point about what students may or may not be doing on their PCs when typing in class (another reason that if the student is surfing the web or something .... it can be a major distraction to the students sitting next to them). You might still be doing it on a tablet, but it will be much less obvious to the teacher.
Just my two cents, but I've been through the mill at both schools, and a lot of my friends are now profs at both types of schools, so I do have a little more insight on this than most proponents of ebook readers.
Oh, and I just checked, there are a few on ebay right now for about $200. You could probably upgrade the drive and memory for not too much money as well, although, most students only need to have 3 or 4 textbooks on the device at any one time, and just the notes for the 3 or 4 classes you take each year, so masses of HD space are generally not an issue (although, for $100 you can get a great 500 GB portable USB HD). RAM is easy to upgrade.
So, for less than $400 ($800 or so if you get Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.0) you can have something that should get your student through his or her entire law school career and which would still be useful as they start being an attorney. I still use my TC1000 to this day as a backup in my law practice.
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