Texting. Tweeting. Facebooking. Instagramming. There are the countless “distractions” that are caused from smart phones that give them a bad reputation.  

But they aren’t all bad and since nearly every college student has one, they can be useful. Here’s five apps to download on your smart phone that will help you will school. 

 

1. GROUPME: Got a group project? GroupMe is perfect for collaborating with others through the use of a group chat. It’s free, and only one person out of the group has to have the app in order for it to work. As long as everyone has a cell phone, GroupMe can help you out. 

 

2. NOTABILITY:  Apple’s App of the Year, Notability keeps track of all of your notes. You can take notes on it, record lectures, draw on photos and annotate PDFs. While there are free versions, the full package costs $5.99.

 

3. COMPANION:  This app is all about safety. If you’re out and don’t want to walk back to your car or home alone, Companion lets you send your location to contacts in your phone who will be sent a live map of where you are. Plus, your contacts don’t even have to have the app. And this one is also a freebee.

 

4. FLASHCARDS+ BY CHEGG: Flashcards can take forever to make, but this lets you make and keep them on your phone. Another freebee, this one is also available to Apple Watch users.

 

5. MAKE SMART CHOICES: There are options in the cafeteria and other food places on campus that aren’t the healthiest, but there are smart choices too. Opt for a salad instead of french fries, water instead of pop and so on. 

 

6. QUICK GRAPH:  It’s a free graphic (or graphing) calculator. I repeat: free graphic calculator. It has 2D and 3D options along with everything that the average graphic calculator can do.