Two high school juniors students I used to tutor plan to start college in 2021. They are sharp and need assistance. Among other things I want to get both a calculator to use next year in high school and then later in college. They currently use different TI-84 calculators at school.

Also, a non-academic question if I may -- Any idea about good watches for cross-country runners?

TI-84 is fine. I'm wrapping up a math minor this semester and the class I'm talking now is the first one I've used a calculator much for. Most classes want you to do it without a calculator. I probably used a basic 4-function calculator (a TI-30X IIS, but even that is probably overkill) in more classes than I've used my graphing calculator. I have a TI-83 and there have been zero times I thought, "Dang, I wish I had a better calculator" (I was even given a better calculator but still use the TI-83 cause I'm more comfortable with it and never had a reason to use anything more powerful)

The Ti-84 would probably be the most carried calculator by engineering students at A&M for daily use. Make sure they also have access to a basic 4 function calculator as well because some profs in various classes don't allow more advanced calculators on tests.

Lone Stranger said:

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The Ti-84 would probably be the most carried calculator by engineering students at A&M for daily use. Make sure they also have access to a basic 4 function calculator as well because some profs in various classes don't allow more advanced calculators on tests.

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Yep. Exactly what my A&M engineering student does.

I used my TI-83 up until my senior level courses, then switched to a TI-89. The primary reason for doing so was for the solver function in the 89. This was tremendously helpful for some of my fluids classes. 10 years later, I still use it as my primary desk calculator, and I cary a casio fx9750gii for in the field

I liked having the TI-89 for homework because you could follow your work to figure out where you went wrong, and it was pretty powerful with options for things like the solver or throwing formulas into a graph to make sure you were on the right track.

That said, I was in school before Wolfram Alpha was a thing. And I had a TI-89 emulator for whatever reason, those are probably still around. If they don't allow advanced calculators for tests, you might not even one.