Two recent university studies show how quickly Macs are gaining in popularity among college students. Earlier this month University of California-Davis revealed figures that show students who own Macs have climbed 300% on its campus over the past three years, up from 7.2% in 2006 to the present 23.4%.

Meanwhile there are similar figures among first year students at the University of Virginia. It appears Mac ownership has tripled over the past four years on its campus. Now this figure is derived from operating systems, namely Windows versus Mac OS. Interestingly, the “other” category - likely for all you Linux users - aside from a few years has generally declined over the decade.

Also, and for me this is most interesting, it’s quite revealing that the desktop computer is virtually dead to students these days, at least UVA students. In 1997 there were 1,508 students with desktops and only 295 with laptops, according to the data. That means 83% of first-year students had desktops. By 2008 not only has computer ownership nearly doubled but the laptop has flip-flopped with the desktop in terms of popularity. Last year’s figures had 3,034 laptops versus 36 desktops - that means laptops are pulling nearly 99%.