Soon to be a IT student

If you mean programming FOR android OS its basically linux...not hard to do... as for ON android OS... im sure there are tools in there

Buy a laptop if you're going to be programming. You will appreciate the larger keyboard and added processing power.

+1 Don't think I would buy a tablet for programming.

He said IT courses, so depending on the degree he may or may not be doing much programming.

I don't know much about tablets, but I know Nvidia was supposed to be coming out with some pretty beastly mobile processors this year for tablets and the like.

Good point. If all you want to do is take notes and look things up online you can't go wrong with an Asus Transformer. I've got one and it gets a reliable 16.5 hours of battery life when using the keyboard. I've got the older TF101 model, but there is also the Prime if you need it for the E-Peen.

Also, and I doubt this has changed in the past decade, when I was taking IT classes there was always a workstation for every user. If you are getting say an IS degree at a 4 year university then the Transformer...

200$ for a laptop, maybe going to be all to write a text in notepad...
joke aside, depending on the program you are going to use, laptop at such a low budget will be short

That's a good point as well, I would wait a bit longer to see how much Ultrabook/Slimbook/whatever I could afford or see what the next round of tablets and quad core mobile processors bring. If you simply can't wait an Asus Transformer could probably be gotten used in good condition for relatively cheap.

Are you going into IT, or are you going into programming, because they're not the same thing. I started as a software engineer (programming) and after a year of it changed to IT, due to not liking sifting through 10,000 lines of code to find that just ONE of my " ; " was a " : ", or i forgot to include a library or something. IT, depending on the focus your school likes to take (mine puts a big emphasis on cisco), it's almost all server/network stuff. Lot's of routing and switching (cisco), server environments, VM's, linux/unix/gnu administration and practice (databases, dns services, web/mail serving, etc.). I'm now on my final year of bachelors in IT w/ a major in cisco, and the closest thing i've done to any sort of programming was writing routing tables and the such, which imho is absolutely nothing like actual programming (it's actually harder if you're not really, really good w/ numbers).

Either way, don't get a tablet. You need something to work on, not something to play with. Sounds like you're coming up with excuses to get a tablet just because you want to play with one. Don't. You're going to school to get a serious degree that will impact your career for the rest of your life and if you're going to get something for that, get something FOR THAT. Meaning a real computer / laptop. I'd even go so far as saying do not get anything with a dedicated graphics card esp if you're a gamer because that will only serve to distract you and once you get into classes like advanced linux administration, networking essentials, etc., those distractions WILL fail you. I made the mistake of farting around through my network essentials (cisco) class the first time and not taking the instructor seriously when he said we will be required to study 2-3 hours minimum per night to pass the class and I failed. Second time around, I studied a good 4-5 hours a night and got a B- in the class.