Best Apps For College Students – 8 Top Apps To Download

If you’re starting college this fall, you likely already have your bags packed – perhaps you’ve even moved in! You’re getting your computer ready to go and you’re buying or renting your textbooks. As you’re checking off your list for school, though, don’t forget to add these best apps for college students to your list.

Best Apps For College Students

College can be tough, particularly if this is your first year away at school. However, there are a few ways you can make your life a little easier. No matter what your college worries might be, don’t worry – there’s an app for that!

From studying to productivity, health and safety to food, this is a list of some of the top apps you’ve got to consider downloading. Many are free! 

1. Best App for Studying: Quizlet 

Quizlet might be a program with which you are familiar from your high school days, but if not, it’s time you jump on the bandwagon. This app offers one of the best ways for you to study as it will help you create flashcards.

Gone are the days when you needed to create paper flashcards to help you study. Now, with Quizlet, you can easily create your own flashcards in a digital form so that you have them with you wherever you need to go. This website is a true education staple! 

With Quizlet, you can not only create and study from your own flashcards, but you can look up ones that other students have made, play games, test yourself, and collaborate with other students. 

An interesting and incredibly helpful feature of Quizlet is that you can share sets that you create for a specific exam. This makes group studying easy, simple, and enjoyable.

2. Best App for Homework: Time Timer

If you find yourself frequently distracted by others while you’re attempting to get your homework done or bust out that final essay, Time Timer might be able to help. 

This app will give you a visual timer that will let you create, customize, and build your own custom timer settings. You can choose various alert options and even name your timer for a specific purpose. 

Time Timer is great if you prefer to use the Pomodoro Technique for getting work done. If you aren’t familiar with this technique, it involves doing steady work for 25 minute and then taking a 5-minute break.

The Pomodoro Technique is a phenomenal way to help yourself stay focused and complete high-quality work. The Time Timer app can help you track your Pomodoro intervals (or whatever method you use to track your time). It’s great for homework, but also for any kind of studying or schoolwork. 

3. Best App for Group Projects: Spike 

Group projects are a serious drag, but with Spike, they don’t have to be. 

Spike is a good app if you have a hard time remembering to check your email. This modern team collaboration app gathers all kinds of communication methods, from email to phone calls to task lists, in one convenient location. 

Best yet, the app works in conjunction with your existing email account and can be used on all kinds of platforms. You’ll have all of your files, messages, and chats in a single thread, in one location. No more losing information or messages in a pages-long email thread! 

Although this app is thus far only utilized by college students, for the most part, it’s starting to gain some leverage in professional settings, too. You might want to jump on the bandwagon now, as it could be an app that you see used in your future workplace.

4. Best App for Communication: WhatsApp 

WhatsApp is far from the newest app on this list, but it’s one that should definitely be utilized by college students everywhere. Not only can you use it to keep in touch with your family and friends back home, but you can also use it on campus.

It’s a free, secure messaging app that allows you to make video or voice calls, message people or groups, send videos and photos, or even share documents. While most students use it on campus, it can also be used when you are studying abroad. It’s the perfect choice for when you can’t text or call, for whatever reason.

5. Best App for Managing Your Physical Health: MedManage

Taking care of yourself might be the last thing on your mind when you’re away at college – after all, you have enough on your plate! From studying to making it to class on time to working an on-campus job,  you’re busy enough as it is.

However, if you don’t keep track of your physical health, all of those other areas of your life are going to suffer. That’s why it’s important, as a college student, to keep your health in check. The MedManage app can help you do just that.

This app provides you with portable access to all of your medical information 24/7. It’s the most useful for a student who relies on daily medication to manage some physical or mental health condition, particularly those of us who are a bit more forgetful.

The app will keep track of your list of medications along with a dose and refill reminder for each. It will give you stats and medication adherence charts as well as local medication disposal drop-off locators. You can set up a family account, too, Mom and Dad! That way, you can keep track of whether your student is missing their doses and you’ll get an alert for up to five separate profiles. 

6. Best App for Managing Your Mental Health: BetterHelp

Freshmen, take note – this is the best app to help you stay calm, cool, and collected during the taxing first year away from home. 

BetterHelp is one of the best mental health apps out there. This service will partner you with a therapist that can help you throughout any challenges you encounter, both through chat, phone, video, or messaging. You can message your therapist at any time with no appointment required.

It’s important to note that this app is not free – in fact, this app can be a bit expensive. However, it’s a lot cheaper than traditional therapy and is also much more convenient. 

7. Best App for Finances: Mint

The stereotype of the broke college student can finally be dissolved once you download the Mint app on your phone! Mint is a phenomenal app for non-college students, too, but if this is the first time you’re away from home, you’ll want to install this app to help you manage your finances.

As a college student, you probably have very little money to work with – and you’re probably also accumulating a large amount of debt right now through your student loans.

The Mint app can help. It syncs up with your bank account, investment accounts, and other financial documents so that you can track expenses, make a budget, and even stay on top of your credit store.

Starting early with Mint is a great idea, as it will set you up for success later on down the road when you have more money to work with. You’ll already be in the habit of budgeting and saving money. 

8. Best App for Food Delivery: UberEats 

The apps we’ve already told you about in this list are pretty serious – but this one is a bit more enjoyable. WHo doesn’t love pizza delivered right to the dorm room door?

If you’re already familiar with Uber, the popular ridesharing platform, know that UberEats is an extension of this service that delivers food right to your room. You don’t have to worry about driving around an unfamiliar city (if you even have a car) or finding parking. 

UberEats is a free app and it’s perfect for those nights when you’re cramming for a test and miss the dining hall hours – or are simply sick of the standard dining hall fare! 

Tips For Finding And Downloading The Right App

Don’t click download just yet – you might want to consider these tips first. 

Staying safe as a college student is just as important online as it is when you’re walking around campus. Data breaches and identity theft are increasingly common these days, and you don’t want to do anything that’s going to increase your risk of being hacked. 

When you download an app, make sure it’s through Google Play or the App Store (depending on your device). Be sure to check reviews, download counts, and other stats for the app before you click download, too, and consider installing a VPN for your device to help protect you from malicious apps and websites.

Downloading an app this way will almost always be more secure than doing so from a simpel Google search or a third-party website. Your information will be safeguarded by the systems that the app stores have in place. 

Not sure if an app is legit? Don’t download it. It could give you more headaches than it’s actually worth.

Otherwise, these ten apps should help you navigate your college years smoothly – and guide you toward a productive degree and career.