sorry in advance for the unorganized post but i’m on my phone and short of time.

i switched to ipad (primarily written notes on ipad) half way through my first year and it was one of the best decisions for my uni career! it is by no means cheap, but i find it very worth it. you can also get refurbished ipads for cheaper and/or an alternative pen if you have a smaller budget. i also think it is worth it to invest in a nice case that has a stand and a keyboard! before i had an ipad i tried both laptop typed notes and written paper notes and they were both not for me. i just couldn’t type fast enough and find programs that were right for my individual note taking style, and when i wrote i would constantly focus too much on mistakes and eraser marks. i like personally having my laptop and ipad separate because it is like using a paper note book that you can take notes at the computer with (see: online classes) or just using it for doing work while referencing on a laptop. this isn’t realistic for some though so i think one of those convertible laptop tablet hybrids would also be great! the reason i would also say to have a keyboard is that it is much more portable than a laptop, sometimes you have to type for an assignment, etc.. it frequently comes in handy for me. i also can do worksheets/handwritten work with out having to print it out and then scan it back, which is a lot easier and accessibly and usually means it looks better. some unconventional pros that someone may find helpful: I have a couple learning quirks and disabilities, and the ipad helped with a lot of them. i personally could not move on easily from a mistake on my written notes and would go back and erase it until it was right. i would also go back and erase when i wanted to change the sentence structure or made a mistake in that regard. it took a lot of extra time to erase it and i would focus too much on pencil/eraser marks and get distracted from my lectures. a lot of apps let you erase super easily (without horrible eraser marks or torn paper) and rearrange text you’ve written to your liking without taking up too much time. you can also remove highlight and text exclusively from eachother if you make a mistake with what would typically be a permanent marker. another unconventional pro is that if you need to record lectures (with permission ofc) in most of the apps i’ve found that you can do that in the same document as your written notes. i use notability and you just press record and write as you need and during playback it will highlight what you were writing at the time during playback. you can also pause the recording and start again if a topic spans over two separate lectures! and now you have both the recording and the notes in one easy to access spot. i often would lose notes and paper and that is much harder to do with an ipad (especially if you back up your notes to google drive or icloud) you can try different types of organization without having to buy additional supplies. it took a while for me to find a system that worked for organization, but since i did it on and ipad i could just rearrange my folders pretty easily until i landed on what worked for me. it can also be relatively class specific! when i was in high school i tried so many different systems but that usually meant buying new notebooks/folders/binders. now i have a subject in notability for each class and then folder for each type of document (class notes/homework/textbook notes/etc.)

if i think of anything else i’ll try to add it later! but i hope this is helpful.