2021 Mac Apps for Students
Your Mac is a great companion for all the trips to campus and the closest Starbucks or even just from your desk to the couch and back to bed. These Apps and Programs make it an even more excellent companion.
Studying has been one of the many aspects of life that have been completely turned upside down by the Covid-19 pandemic. The experience of being a college/university student before the pandemic and during the pandemic could not be much more different.
Nevertheless, some aspects of studying have remained the same, such as the familiar sight of your Mac’s desktop and the dimly glowing keys under your fingers. Now, studying with a Mac is great, regardless if it’s from home or in-person on campus, but with these few Apps, it will become even better.
Notion
Notion is my program of choice for writing summaries and organizing my whole study life. What I really like about Notion is its modularity, whether you are creating a simple budget or your Bachelor’s thesis. There probably is a Notion template, and if not, it is easy enough to make a page that fits your needs yourself. The modularity even continues; you can create an unlimited amount of subpages and link them together.
In my opinion, Notion combines the best aspects of various other good note-taking apps and combines them into one program. I like that you can set up your Notion similar to a OneNote “notebook” but aren’t bound by constraints on how many subpages and chapters you can create. I like that it is easy to collaborate and that even first-time users find the basic things pretty intuitive.
From my student perspective, Notion is a game-changer because not only is it a central place where I can store a lot of things relating to my studies (and also my life in general), but it also is accessible from anywhere. As the App for the Mac is basically just a display of what you would see when you use it from the browser, you can access your notes and summaries from any browser, which is something that can come in extremely handy when in need of it.
However, even though there are a ton of things to like about Notion, there are also some issues.
First of all, Notion constantly synchronizes your stuff to the Internet. This is great if you have a constant internet connection, yet it is not so handy if you do not always have an internet connection. As Notion is a web-based app, there are some pages that it caches, but most of them are only available if you have an internet connection. Hence, you might find yourself in a situation where you want to look at a particular page again during your way to campus but can’t because Notion did not cache this page. For me, it is not that big of an issue, as I just activate my Hotspot while commuting, so I am online again, yet it may be a problem for you.
The second issue I have with Notion is that the app has a steep learning curve even though quite intuitive for the basics. I have not yet found out about tons of features or do not know how to use them. To be honest, I probably won’t use them anyway if I did not feel the need to use them in over one year. Yet, some things require some getting used to, for example, the way tables work, and if you don’t have the time to go on this learning journey, you might run into some problems. It also should be noticed that it is just the current state of the app and there even is a support page that points out that the team is working on improvements to the offline experience.
Overall though, in my opinion, Notion is an App that every student should have, even regardless of their operating system. It can quite easily serve as a central hub for your studies and provides an enormous amount of features. Furthermore, as a Student, you profit from Notion’s student subscription, which is basically the personal Pro plan (usually 4$/month) for free.
Notability
As I mentioned, even though I like Notion a ton, it is not my only note-taking app on my Mac. This is primarily because Notion is fantastic to take notes about stuff, yet taking notes alongside slides or even handwritten notes combined with an iPad is not a strength of Notion.
Hence, Notability is the other note-taking app on my MacBook Pro. On the one hand, this is because I use it to take handwritten notes on the iPad, and hence these notes are synced automatically to my Mac. However, the second reason I have Notability on my MacBook Pro may be very interesting to a broad range of students, regardless if they use an iPad as a companion. Notability has a built-in recording feature. This feature allows you to record, for example, a lecture while taking notes on the corresponding slides. If you then look back at those slides, the recording can be beneficial if you can’t precisely recall what the professor said concerning the particular slide.
Hence, in my opinion, Notability is a superb option as the app to take notes on Powerpoint slides during the lecture.
However, as I only use this aspect of Notability, I cannot really speak on its other feature or the app’s shortcomings in other areas, as I simply do not need to use them. One final thing that needs to be mentioned is the price. Currently, Notability costs nine Swiss Franks and $8.99. Even though this is not a lot of money, it is still something that should be considered.
Overall though, Notability is a supplementary form to Notion is a setup I can wholeheartedly recommend to any student. The versatility of Notion paired with the student-centric features of Notability makes for an almost unbeatable student app duo.
Things 3
While taking notes and summarizing stuff is inevitably a big part of being a student, keeping track of all the things you have to do is also a crucial task. Instead of relying solely on your brain to keep track of all your tasks for the day and your calendar as an assistant, so you don’t forget your deadlines, having a dedicated to-do list app enhanced my productivity and focus significantly.
Various books talk about the benefit of having a to-do list where all the things you have to do go instead of just having them flowing around your brain. While the impact of having a to-do list app may vary from student to student, I have found that it really helps me.
My choice of app is Things 3. To get it right out of the way, Things 3 is not cheap. It costs around 50$ for the Mac version alone, and if you want the iOS versions, you’ll need to pay again for them. However, if you are willing to do so, you get a great experience as the to-do’s sync fast and reliably to all devices that the same Things account is logged in.
However, looking beyond the cost point, Things 3 is terrific. Getting started with Things 3 is very intuitive, and creating simple daily to-do lists is easy and straightforward. Even though the app has a very simplistic look, it has a lot of functionality. You can create different “areas” where to-dos belong, for example, studying and life. Furthermore, there are tags, deadlines, and a neat menu for planning ahead. Each to-do can be placed on a date, so if you are the type of student that plans ahead an entire week, Things 3 got you covered there as well.
The final feature that I really enjoy about Things 3 is the keyboard shortcuts. There is the possibility to just create a new to-do that just goes into your inbox or even a new “smart do-do” that also goes into your inbox. In contrast to the regular one has a link to whatever you have been working on at the moment of creating it. So if you see an email that you need to reply to but do not have the time just then, the smart to-do will open up that email once you have time to respond.
Overall, I think that a dedicated to-do list helps most students, as it provides an excellent overview and sort of a structure on what to do on any given day. I like to have my to-do list digitally, and for that, I think Things 3 is the perfect app. Even though it is not cheap by any means, the functionality it provides makes up for its price tag. Furthermore, the integration with other Apple devices makes it a perfect choice for the Mac.
Spark
Newsletters, assignments, information for your current studies, and exchanges with professors come together in your mail. You probably have multiple email accounts that fill up with various mails, making your inbox a thing that requires constant upkeep.
I have recently (around three months ago) switched to using Spark as my email app of choice. While I was pretty content with the macs standard email app, I had some issues with one account that did not sync across devices. Hence I switched.
Spark combines a friendly user interface with powerful mailing features and a smart inbox. While it was initially created for bigger corporations that have teams with several members, it is also surprisingly useful for students.
The feature that makes it stand out is the smart inbox, which automatically sorts emails into various categories, like newsletters, notifications, and people. This is extremely useful as you quickly get a good overview of your inbox and see the important emails at a glance. Other notable features include a quick reply menu (thumbs up, etc.), which is only really useful if you work in groups and know the people, so just a simple thumbs-up reply isn’t offensive. Furthermore, Spark also has a remind and schedule feature. The schedule feature allows you to set a particular time for sending your email, so your professor won’t know that it was 2.15 am when you wrote the email but a regular time like 7.30 am.
Overall, even though Spark was not directly designed with Students in mind, the app provides a lot of functionality for students, and because it is free for personal use, it is a fantastic choice for your email client.
Alfred 4
Alfred is genuinely one of these apps that once you use them, there is no way you’ll ever go back to not using them. The best one-sentence description of Alfred is to think of it as a spotlight on steroids. I once heard this expression somewhere, and now I think it fits perfectly.
Alfred 4 is a Program that puts the total versatility of your Mac at your fingertips. It is an app launcher, file finder, and much much more. While most productivity guides have Alfred 4 at the top of their list as an actual application for the Mac, I think it is also a fantastic tool for students.
As a student, you are forced to cope with many files, lecture slides, fact sheets, guidelines, textbook excerpts, and many more. Most have some kind of a structure to handle and sort these files. However, sooner or later, most students find themselves at a place where they can’t find the file that they need. This is where Alfred comes in. When the file is somewhere on your Mac, Alfred will find it. With a simple keyboard shortcut, Alfred pops up and shows you all the results for the term you are searching for.
This might sound awfully familiar. Doesn’t spotlight do the exact same thing? Well, kind of. However, as previously mentioned, Alfred 4 is way more powerful and capable. Not only can Alfred launch apps and find files, but it can also control some aspects of the Laptop, for example putting the Mac in sleep mode or emptying the trash. Furthermore, with the Alfred power pack, there is the possibility to create workflows where one command toggles a series of actions.
Personally, I can’t see myself ever going back to not using Alfred, as nowadays I control most of my general inputs like opening Apps and files or locking and shutting down my Mac through this app. The best thing is that the regular version of Alfred is free. As most students won’t need the power pack upgrade, just downloading Alfred and incorporating it into your way of interfacing with your Mac is a huge productivity boost.
Bartender
Bartender is not a must-have application like Alfred or even Notion. However, Bartender is a small utility app that enhances the aesthetics and function of your Mac’s menu bar.
I have quite a few apps that place themselves up on my menu bar, and while I do not want to disable most of them, I also do not want to see them cluttering up my menu bar. First of all, I don’t like its looks, and second, it does not really serve the purpose of the menu bar if it is stuffed with little icons, as I can’t pick up the displayed information at a glance.
Bartender is a paid app that allows you to freely rearrange your menu bar and hide items or never show them. Furthermore, there are also options so that it sometimes shows icons and sometimes not (for example, once I am connected to wifi, my wifi icon disappears, but when I am not connected or my Mac is trying to connect is visible).
While I defiantly wouldn’t say that Bartender is a must-have app for students, it is an excellent App that provides quite some functionality. It is one of those apps that makes your Mac a little more truly yours and a subtle note.
Verdict
Of course, many apps will be a great companion to your Mac as a student. However, in my opinion, the apps on this list are all highly great additions to your Mac.
Especially Notion, Things 3, and Alfred 4 are apps that, in my opinion, every student needs on his Mac. The versatility and functionality provided by these apps are simply outstanding will be helpful to almost any student out there, no matter if they are watching the fifth Zoom lecture or if they are still on campus at 8 pm.
As always, stay safe
Raffael
