20 Useful Websites Every Student

Should Know About

Thomas Frank
http://collegeinfogeek.com/20-useful-websites-for-students/
Last Updated: August 10, 2015
Follow @TomFrankly

Ive always been a sucker for shiny new websites that let me do things
more efficiently or at least in a novel way.
As a result, I probably spent way too much time in my classes browsing productivity and
website review blogs, r/InternetIsBeautiful on Reddit, and other places.
Whatever lecture time I missed out on, though, I made up at least in part though finding a ton
of websites that helped me be more productive as a student. Additionally, becoming a
walking encyclopedia of web tools helped when it came to group projects; I was often able to
suggest tools that helped my groups get work done far faster than normal.
Today, Im dipping into that knowledge pool and combining whatever I find with some
additional current research. Heres the result: 20 incredibly useful websitesI think you
should know about if youre a student.
If this list isnt enough for you, youll find even more websites, apps, and tools over at
the Resources page, which Im always adding things to.

Stack Exchange a collection of question-and-answer communities. If youve got

questions about chemistry, math, programming, or pretty much anything else, youll
probably find an answer here.

Wolfram Alpha a computational knowledge engine, this site can calculate

basically any math problem and come up with data on all kinds of things (including all
Pokemon data!)! Step-by-step solutions to math problems used to be free, but they cost
money now. For a free (but less easy-to-use) solution, try SymPy Gamma.

StudentRate a site that aggregates student deals and discounts on clothes, travel,
textbooks, electronics, and lots of other things.

Sleepyti.me uses the sciences of REM cycles to calculate the optimal time you
should go to bed in order to feel well-rested, based on when you plan to wake up.

Habitica formerly HabitRPG, this is my favorite tool for building habits and you
probably know Ive talked about it before. If you end up using it, check out the CIG
guild were up to around 1,500 members now!

Todoist my task manager of choice. I like the clean design, organizational features,
and the fact that all my tasks sync across multiple platforms. However, I will say that the
bulk of my task management happens onpaper/whiteboards these days. Todoist just
functions as one of the quick capture components of my system.

Google Calendar old and trusty. Ive been using GCal since I was a freshman, and
while it hasnt changed a whole lot since then, it really doesnt need to. It accessible in
any browser, has great smartphone apps, and just works.

Dropbox another app Ive been using since my early college days, Dropbox keeps
all your files synced, updated, and backed up across all your computers. Recently, their
browser interface has gotten much better you can now preview most file types right in
the browser without having to download them.

Lynda a huge library of video courses that can help you learn tons of skills, mainly
centered around computing and media production. Lynda is particularly good for
learning the ins and outs of computer software.

Mint a tool that lets you view all your financial account in one place, track your
spending, and set up budgets.

Rate My Professors a site that allows students to write reviews of professors. I

dont take this sites ratings as the golden truth, but it has steered me towards some great
professors in the past.

Coggle a cool little mindmapping (one of my favorite note-taking methods) tool that
lives in your browser.

Your university website! If youre not familiar with it, get on it. Most university
websites have course catalogues, schedule planners, financial aid information,
scholarship listings, academic calendars, student job boards, and other useful things.

Written Kitten potentially the greatest writing aid ever invented. Set a target word
count, and whenever you hit it, youll get a new picture of a cat. What could be
better? Note: Theres currently a bug that prevents pictures from showing when you set
count to 100 words, so set it to at least 200.

Cheatography a really cool site that collects cheat sheets that condense information
on all kinds of topics. This could be helpful for building study guides.

Bibme a tool that can help you automatically generate bibliographies and source
citations. I like it better than similar tools because it lets you search for books and other
sources; if it recognizes what you searched for, it can often auto-fill all the citation
fields.

Ankiweb the web component of Anki, my favorite spaced-repetition software. I

kinda used Ankiweb as an excuse to put Anki on a list of websites, but its legit because

itll let you study your flashcards in the browser. However, you do need to have Anki
downloaded first.

Instructables a site where people can post DIY project tutorials. I put my hanging
desk and hanging loft bed projects on there, but youll find much more practical projects
as well.

What are your favorite useful websites?

If youre unable to see the video above, you can view it on YouTube.