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Big expense could fall right into this student's laptop

College tells him to get a computer with more memory or he’ll be at a significant disadvantage in some courses.

DEAR HARRY:

My son is entering college this fall. He has been notified that he will be required to have a specific-capacity laptop computer. He has a perfectly good laptop now, but its capacity is much lower than required. We tried to fight this, but were told that lower capacity would put him at a significant disadvantage in some courses. I'm afraid we're stuck. With all our coming expenses, can you think of a way out of this? Anything else you can think of to help us? Paying for tuition, etc., is really going to hurt, but we can make it. That college degree is worth our extra effort.

WHAT HARRY SAYS: It sure is! The laptop will require a little extra research. Start with the price at the school store. Sometimes they get special deals that give freshmen a chance to save some big bucks. Then there are the usual sources like appliance stores and Costco, Sam's and Best Buy. In some of these places you can negotiate the price as well. And late summer is a period when general price cuts on computers is common. Another big- ticket item is textbooks. In addition to the possibility of used books (not so common today), there are often better deals outside of the school store like at Amazon or other computer sites. In some cases, you can find low-cost downloads on the Internet.