Son was required to come as a freshman with laptop. He is always connected to the university network and is able to access any information and contact professors. You would have to see if this is a requirement.
The nice part about college is that most students are given timelines and know in advance when papers are due as well as tests.
With that knowledge, son prefers to get work done before he hits the road. There is a lot of down time, he prefers catchng up on ZZZZ, video games and movies (viewed on that laptop
).