Sales of desktop and laptop computers may soon be overtaken by tablets, but there is one place the old workhorses haven’t fallen out of fashion: the college campus.

PCs are the most popular gadgets among college students, according to the annual “Back to school” survey by professional services firm Deloitte. While some 82% of college students own PCs and 80% have smartphones, just 18% own tablets. That may provide hope for the future of the PC. “The combination of smartphones and laptops makes the tablet redundant for students,” says Brent Schoenbaum, a partner in the retail practice at Deloitte. They work on PCs and access social media via smartphone, he says.

Why college kids prefer PCs to tablets

“Unless you’re shooting for a degree in Angry Birds, tablets are a horrible back-to-school purchase,” says Louis Ramirez, senior features writer on DealNews.com. “You can’t write a 10-page research paper with an iPad.” While tablets are getting better at innovating — with cases that double as keyboards and new digital pens — it’s still easier to take notes on a laptop or desktop keyboard, says Mark Spoonauer, editor-in-chief at LaptopMag.com. And while physical keyboards are available for the iPad and other tablets, the traditional Windows desktop interface is easier for multitasking than Android or iOS tablets, he says.

A lightweight laptop like the Macbook Air can perform most extra-curricular tablet activities, but the opposite is not always true. “You can’t throw a party in your dorm room and use your tablet as your main speakers,” Ramirez says. Not only can students write a paper on a PC, he says, they can also listen to music, stream Netflix and even play video games. “All those experiences are optimized for the PC because you have a bigger screen and better audio,” Ramirez says.

Another reason PCs are winning out with students: price. Desktop PCs are at their cheapest during September when students are going back to school, Ramirez says, with prices starting at $200 for a dual-core desktop PC. (The iPad Mini costs $329.) “The desktop PC is simply a wiser, more realistic investment for any student this fall,” he says. Indeed, while over a third (34%) of U.S. adults own a tablet like an iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus or Kindle Fire, most tablet owners also have incomes of at least $75,000 per year, according to a Pew Internet Research study released last month.

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Apple AAPL, -2.71% and PC makers are also more likely to offer subsidies and other incentives for students to buy computers. There are no such deals for the iPad. For students buying an IdeaTab Lynx tablet/laptop hybrid, for instance, “Dell University” offers $230 off the $649 retail price. Hewlett Packard’s “HP Academy” student program has similar discounts like $200 off a select PC and tablet priced at $999 or more. Apple’s “Educational Pricing” also has $200 off a new iMac, which start at around $949. Apple’s student offers for iPads are somewhat more restricted. It gives a free $50 app gift card with selected iPad purchases for qualifying students.

Tablets are still expected to overtake PCs overall. Worldwide tablet shipments are forecast to grow nearly 59% to 230 million units by the end of 2013, overtaking laptop shipments this year and all PCs by 2015, a recent report by research group IDC found. In 2013, IDC said the average price globally for tablets is expected to decline by almost 11% to $381. “Over time, the tablet-laptop hybrid category will take off for students who want the best of both worlds,” Spoonauer says. ( Case in point: the Android-powered HP SlateBook X2 combines a 10-inch tablet with a detachable keyboard dock for $479.

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