CD Future

B-schoolers aren't all business all the time. Almost everyone carries a gizmo for playing tunes -- just make sure that when you pack your briefcase, you don't include a CD player. CDs are out; MP3 music files are in.

MP3 is a high-quality digital-storage format that compresses sound files to 1/20th of their original size. B-schoolers can download MP3 files from the Internet, put together their own compilations, and play them on Diamond Multimedia's Rio PMP300 MP3 Player. Abandoning CDs saves money -- MP3 files cost just a few dollars to legally download -- but carrying around a Rio isn't about adopting a parsimonious lifestyle. Rather, the Rio is a sign of technological savvy in a relentlessly techie culture.

The Rio resembles a coal-black Sony Walkman, only it's small enough to fit in your palm. The device comes bundled with software that converts music from a PC's CD-ROM drive into MP3 files; additional flash memory cards are available, which increase the amount of music that the Rio can store.

Coordinates: $169.95. Rio PMP300 MP3 Player, www.diamondmm.com

Office in a Bag

Now that you have accumulated all of that gear, where are you going to put it? On many campuses, backpacks are taking a backseat to more professional-looking leather bags. The big winner, especially on the East Coast, is clearly the Coach line of business bags.

Students give the Coach Organizer Brief a winning nod because it helps you to look like you're going places -- without making you appear like you've already arrived. Stow your laptop in the Brief's padded center compartment, and stash CDs or floppies in three disc pockets. The bag also has a gusseted pocket in front and two additional compartments inside. And its strap lets you sling the bag over your shoulder when you're on the run.

To complement a computer carrying case, you'll need a travel bag for flying off to meet with recruiters. In-the-know students never check their luggage, so the challenge is to find a bag that's small enough to meet the strict size restrictions for carry-ons, yet large enough to accommodate a suit without crumpling it.

There's no clear consensus on luggage, but Tumi's Wheel-A-Way 20-inch Expandable Carry-On can be stashed in an overhead compartment. It can also weather a trip through O'Hare without looking like it experienced anything worse than the backseat of a town car. "I've never been embarrassed to arrive at an interview with my suitcase in tow," says Sarah Heckscher. "It's hip yet professional looking." So there's your final lesson: In business school, fashion applies to gear as well as to garb -- there's no reason to look uncool.

Coordinates: $498. Coach Organizer Brief, www.coach.com; $525. Tumi Wheel-A-Way, www.tumi.com

Heath Row (hrow@fastcompany.com) is an associate editor at Fast Company. Ilan Greenberg (ilang@ix.netcom.com) writes on technology from his home in San Francisco.

Action Item: How Are Your Marks?

Before you hit the books this semester, bookmark these sites.

Fatbrain.com, an online bookstore, has 1,100 subject areas on business and technology; its business books are competitively priced.

Hoover's Online serves up capsule profiles on more than 14,000 companies free of charge.

Hotel Discounts, a service of the Hotel Reservations Network, offers cut rates on hotel rooms in 32 major cities worldwide.

Coordinates: www.fatbrain.com; www.hoovers.com; www.hoteldiscount.com

Sidebar: Palm Upgrades

Palm organizers can be found everywhere on business-school campuses. "They're ubiquitous; we might as well wear them in holsters," cracks Stanford's Edward Batista. "Some longtime users even refuse to get upgrades -- they don't want to come off as newbies." Since you're probably already packing a Palm, here are two valuable add-ins to consider:

AvantGo.com grabs data from the Web or your school's intranet and plops it into your Palm. After registering at the AvantGo Web site, you can download the software that lets you store Web-site info on your Palm. You then tap on your Palm's hypertext links to cruise through the downloaded information. Students love this program, because it allows them to view, say, a company's downloaded financials while they're flying in for an interview.

Coordinates: Free. AvantGo.com, www.avantgo.com

Documents To Go, from DataViz Inc., eliminates the need for you to lug a laptop around campus, just so you can view a word-processing or a spreadsheet file. Just drag a file into the "Documents To Go" window on your PC or laptop, and Documents To Go converts the file so you can read it on your Palm. The next time you hit the HotSync button, the file will be automatically moved from your computer to your Palm for viewing anywhere, anytime. And Documents keeps links to the locations of all your files -- whether they're on a server or in a folder -- so you can quickly access your work on your Palm.

Coordinates: $39.95. Documents To Go, www.dataviz.com