1. Wunderlist
Category: Organization
Description: Wunderlist is a simple and straightforward app, where you can make new lists and add items to the list and check them off as they’re completed. You can use it for anything from grocery lists to to-do lists.
Pros: Accessible (mobile, Mac, and PC friendly) so you can add to your list wherever and whenever and view it on other platforms later.
Cons: Doesn’t have many other functions.
2. CATA Bus App
Category: Transportation
Description: Especially in the harsh Pennsylvania winters, the bus is an essential. CATA bus app tells you exactly where you are, where the bus is, the route that the bus is on, and how many people are on the bus.
Pros: Shows your current location so you can see where the nearest bus stops are.
Cons: Not the best at live updates, so the bus may be closer than it appears on the app.
3. Timehop
Category: Entertainment
Description: By linking your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Swarm, Dropbox Photos, Google, and even iPhone photos and videos, Timehop show you all your activity on that specific day in previous years.
Pros: Good for laughs.
Cons: You know that cringe-worthy Facebook “Like my status for a truth is?” status you wrote in 2011 that you thought you’d never see again? Surprise!
4. Shazam
Category: Music
Description: By a simple press of a button, the app will listen to whatever song you’re listening to and give you the details including name and artist.
Pros: Extremely easy to use and effective.
Cons: May not be able to pick out the song if there’s too much background noise.
5. GroupMe
Category: Social Media
Description: A group messaging app that is a very popular means of communication at Penn State.
Pros: If you’re added to a GroupMe without the app, you’ll still get the notifications but you’ll get them as a SMS message, so this way you will save money on text messages.
Cons: May blow up your phone with notifications.
6. CamScanner
Category: Organization
Description: CamScanner allows you to take a picture of any paper and turn it into a high quality scanned document.
Pros: So much easier and more convenient than using a scanning machine and it works just as well.
Cons: None that I’ve found.
7. mySTATE
Category: Transportation
Description: Shows a map of the whole Penn State campus and all of its individual buildings.
Pros: Has much more buildings in its database than a regular map app or Google Maps.
Cons: Cost money.
8. Canvas
Category: Education
Description: The canvas website on an app.
Pros: The grade section is much more well organized on the app than on web and shows the grades by categories rather than date.
Cons: The grade section does not have a totaled score of your overall grade.
9. Dining @ PSU
Category: Food
Description: Shows what is offered for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night for all the dining commons on campus.
Pros: Easy way to check what is available in each commons without having to physically go there.
Cons: Doesn’t show when each food place is open.
10. Venmo
Category: Money
Description: A form of money transfer similar to PayPal that is very convenient and popular among college students.
Pros: Much easier transaction than carrying around cash.
Cons: Not everyone has Venmo so you won’t be able to connect with certain people.
11. Uber
Category: Transportation
Description: A car transportation service where you can order rides.
Pros: Very convenient and is open 24/7.
Cons: Cost money.
12. OrderUp
Category: Food
Description: A food app at Penn State that you can order from that has all of the available food delivery services
Pros: You can order food at three in the morning when you’re desperate for some Canyon Pizza or Insomnia Cookies.
Cons: There’s typically a shipping tax and payment minimum so it tends to be more expensive than if you order directly from the website or in person.
