Should I get an iPad for college?

Instead of buying expensive bulky textbooks, I was wanting to get into ebooks. What is the support for textbooks on the ibook app? Kindle and iPad have the ability to make my life a lot easier, I just don't want to buy one only to find out 1/4 of the books I'll ever need are offered. 

I think it kinda depends on what college you're going to. A decent number of the books I've had have been versions special made for my college (or at least that's what it said on the book).  
 
Sounds like a decent idea, but books (usually) aren't as expensive as people make them out to be. Yeah, it'd be more than an iPad in the long run, but books! You can use them to start fires! 

yeah good luck . I don't think I'll ever buy  that thing  because it does pretty much what a good laptop does . 

Your major and college will likely make a huge difference. In four semesters I've only had 2-3 courses that had ebooks available.

The iPad is great for books. The iBooks app uses ePub and can also do PDF. I haven't messed with the Kindle or Nook apps yet, so I don't know how well they would treat you. This website may or may not help, I dunno :) http://www.textbooks.com/etextbooks.php?CSID=QK20CCD0QQD0QCMCMKKUM2MUU&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_source=Performics&utm_term=Affiliate&PartnerID=k238450&utm_campaign=k238450&ganmem=622321359&mcid=XAF-j31838661k238450-k238450 - Seems like you can search to see what textbooks are available in what formats. Google searches for "iPad / ePub "Book Name" "Author" could also bring up some helpful info.

If you can get a majority of your textbooks on the iPad, I'd highly recommend getting one.

i would say no man. you don't know if there is an ebook of it or not until you figure out what classes you are taking.

Even if iBooks doesn't have the title you're looking for you can still download Amazon's Kindle App. Kindle had all of the books I needed this semester on it.

This seems like a question for your school. I got an iPad for multiple reasons, however a main one was so that I wouldn't be glued to my desk and computer. HOWEVER and this is a BIG HOWEVER, I can't even get to my schools webpage (which is said to be of the highest quality when using an Apple product, mainly Safari) let alone look at any of my digital text book. So my recommendation is if you want an iPad solely for the purpose of school textbooks, make 100% sure that it is even an option. 

" yeah good luck . I don't think I'll ever buy  that thing  because it does pretty much what a good laptop does .  "

" Your major and college will likely make a huge difference. In four semesters I've only had 2-3 courses that had ebooks available. "

Books don't run out of battery and don't need a power cable if you forget to bring it to class.

Sounds like a great idea. I would wait until I registered for classes, though. That way you know what books you need, and you can see if they are available digitally.

Why not just download the free Kindle app for your computer?

I'm going to go no. For a lot of textbooks, ereaders still aren't as easily navigable as real books, where you might have to be flipping back and forth for information. There are still a lot of ebooks that you can get on a computer anyways, and a good amount of weird publishers have this odd proprietary ebook thing that only works in browser. At least for me. 
 
@MooseyMcMan said:

" Sounds like a decent idea, but books (usually) aren't as expensive as people make them out to be."

I'd say just look into getting a high end netbook. If you're interested in it for textbooks, than most companies are adopting the ability to purchase e-books, although not all books (namely science texts) do this, for most books and getting an iPad for that is sort of hard to recommend.  A netbook would allow you to have the e-book, your lecture slides and class notes all together in a more accessible, and just as portable, package that the iPad doesn't totally give you.

I wouldn't recommend it. 

I don't recommend it either. I have only had the opportunity to purchase may be 3 or 4 ebooks (I'm a junior Computer Science Major), and frankly I'd rather have a physical book to sell back. You can't sell back ebooks.  
 
Also, think of it this way, if you buy an iPad, your buying a $500 device just so you can purchase $100+ ebooks online without the ability to make any of that back.  
 
Use that money to buy a nice laptop or better yet, use that money for books, lol. 

No man, not at all. Don't waste the money. Even if college textbooks were available as ebooks, which considering the costs they probably won't be for a long time, you still would most likely find very little use for it. 
 
On the other hand, if you don't have a laptop, an iPad or other tablet may be useful. It really depends on if you personally feel like you would get real use out of 400 or 500$ that way.

Do you want to look like an asshole?

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" @HS21 said:

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I would. Gets you chicks. "

Text book support is generally poor (at least for the kindle) because the university makes money on the books.  The iPad is more of an internet consumption device.
 
 I took a digital recorder and a laptop. Then again, I have my BA in English, and the note taking wasn't very intensive.

" Instead of buying expensive bulky textbooks, I was wanting to get into ebooks. What is the support for textbooks on the ibook app? Kindle and iPad have the ability to make my life a lot easier, I just don't want to buy one only to find out 1/4 of the books I'll ever need are offered.  "

under no circumstances should you buy an ipad "for college". I have one and I use it all the time. I absolutely love it. I use it literally almost all the time I'm not driving. 
 
But it's not a computer in any way. It's not a replacement for a computer in any way. It's not a good device to study on in any way. It's not a replacement for paper in any way. 
 
So, it's handy as a calendar, as a best-experience-ever web browser, as a media device, as a gaming unit and I would buy it for any of those reasons. But if you're looking to be productive, you can't use that as an excuse to get one.

get a kindle for $130.

To echo everyone else: no. I have an iPad, and I'm taking online courses, and I would never use the iPad just for ebooks. It's not a productivity machine. I tried using it in place of my laptop when I went out of the country for Christmas (didn't want the laptop to get damaged/stolen), and it was very poor for even rudimentary processes. With a physical keyboard, it would have helped a lot, but then I may as well have my laptop as far as lugging stuff around goes. 
 
The iPad is great for entertainment. It's no good for actual productivity.

No. Definitely not. 
 
Like other people keep doing, I'm just going to suggest again that you get a nice netbook instead. 
 
The iPad is a toy.