You have your laptop, cell phone and mp3 player, so what more do you need to succeed at school, right? WRONG! There are so many (free) easy-to-use programs and sites on the Web that will ultimately make EVERYTHING easier for you this year.

NeoOffice Suite
OS: Mac
Good for: Students looking to save money
Price: FREE, although donations are requested
NeoOffice Writer is a free, office suite for your Mac. You can download it via the link above, and in under 5 minutes you will be able to create, share and edit Word Docs, presentation files, spreadsheets and create PDF documents. This site integrates the platform used for Microsoft Office 2003, and thus allows you to open any program created with Word (for Mac and PC).

iAlertU
OS: Mac
Good for: Students who bring their laptop to the library often
Price: FREE
This program is ideal for students who often leave their laptops unattended in the library. You trust your fellow students, right? Well if you have doubts, simply install this program on your mac and rest easy. I Alert U uses the Mac’s built in camera and motion sensors to set off an alarm when the computer is disturbed and then quickly snaps a picture of the culprit.

Get Things Done
OS: Mac
Good for: Students who lack organizational skills
Price: FREE
Another i-friendly program, iGTD is ideal for students who often find themselves missing assignments, meetings, homework deadlines and anything else class related. Google Calendar and iCal integration allows the user to not only organize notes, projects, and homework assignments, it also allows you to place deadlines and due dates directly onto your calendar from the program. Perfect to help you get things done this fall.

Trillion
OS: PC
Good for: Students who use AIM, Google Chat, Yahoo!, and other chat clients
Price: FREE
Another free download, this time for PC users, allows students to talk to all their friends via one integrated client. Say you need to use google chat for your internship but also want to make plans for later tonight via AIM, Trillion allows you to be signed on to several names (via different clients) at once. Mac users can get the same features via ADIUM. Both operating systems also work with Skype, which also functions as a phone (calls to all U.S. Phones are generally 2 cents per minute) and comes in handy when studying abroad.

SyncBackup
OS: PC
Good for: Students use multiple hard drives or like to save ZIP files
Price: Free
SyncBackup is a free software download that ultimately allows students to save files in different formats, sync between a computer and an external hard drive and access their school’s FTP server. Very useful for students who use multiple computers throughout the day.

By Victoria Reitano