8 Apps Essential for Every College Student in 2021

Every college student is looking for ways to make their lives easier and we don’t blame you! College is hard, and if there are ways to make it easier, everyone deserves to know. With modern college being so deeply rooted in technology now, phone apps are some of the best resources to help you breeze through your classes and feel like you learned something! Who knew there were so many apps that were made just to help you learn. Check out our list of the most essential apps for college students in 2021. 

Wikipedia

Ok, we know. Kind of a cop-out. Your teachers always told you Wikipedia was not a reliable resource when it comes to sources. We’re here to say- no way! Wikipedia is something you visit and learn from constantly. Especially in an academic setting where you are learning everything for the first time and expected to form your own research and opinions. Wikipedia’s secret is that while academia might not consider them trustworthy, their sources usually are and you can easily find websites and information there for anything you want to learn. Don’t sleep on how useful the Wikipedia app is. 

Quizlet

Anyone who survived college in the last decade will tell you that Quizlet is an app that was essential for helping them through. Quizlet is an incredible app that lets you make virtual (yes, virtual!) quizzes for your classes; all you do is enter the question and answer and leave it to Quizlet to do the rest. It will populate flashcards, memory challenges, and multiple-choice quizzes to help you study. It can even track which questions you miss and which you don’t! If you have trouble finding the best way to study, try giving Quizlet a try. 

Google Drive

Let’s be honest;  you can’t get through college these days without having a google account. From Gmail to Google Docs, to Google Sheets, having access to your Google Drive on the go is imperative for making sure you are always prepared. For many who decide not to pay for a Microsoft service on their computers, Drive is the perfect intersection of modernist and traditional Microsoft word. And the best part- they’re life documents. No need to save, save as. As you type, Google saves what you wrote, and you can access the most updated version of your projects at the tip of your fingertips. 

Canva

Whether you are a marketing, art, or finance major, there is a use for everyone in Canva. Canva is an easy-to-use design app for anything you might need. On the board for an organization? Easily design their logo. Want to make a Facebook post for your fraternity? Why don’t you pair it with a flyer designed by you. Canva is photoshop for dummies, with highly easy-to-use features and tons of inspiration and templates to ensure your design is perfect no matter your skill level.

Canvas

A little different from Canva, Canvas is the student portal that most colleges use to keep grades and other records along with details about the classes, important documents, and so forth. Can you imagine the days where you don’t have access to your entire syllabus or grade point average in your pocket? Canva is ideal for students who are using this portal because you will never miss seeing your test scores go up, or an update about class cancellations. You can also submit homework and projects on the go, no need to be in front of the computer. 

Mendeley

With all the hilarious memes about older generations not knowing how to use or edit PDFs, of course, there is an app nowadays that can help you edit, manage and cite your projects while saved as a PDF.   Mendeley is “A reference manager and PDF reader” offering “students the ability to annotate and highlight PDFs, generate references and citations, sync work across devices and search a vast online library”. 

Evernote 

Ever feel like you can never get organized? Evernote is here to help. It’s so much more than a notetaker, which is one of its primary functions. USnews.com says its main functions are a “note-taking and task-management system that offers the ability to sync across devices, Evernote allows users to create to-do lists, save webpages and digitize documents via a device’s camera.” If this were around when I was in college, I would have never handwritten a note again. 

Grammarly

Installing Grammarly on your phone and on your computer browser will change your life. If you don’t like to do your work over again, and bad spelling and punctuation bothers you, Grammarly is the best tool around to help you keep your writing and projects free of spelling errors. 

Grammarly will not only check spelling and grammar in long-form pieces or homework, but they will even tell you if you type words into your browser wrong! You can’t get away with anything with Grammarly. Using this will make you feel confident in your spelling and make your professors pretty proud too.