I'm all for personal printers, to me the biggest drawback is cost of paper and cartridges and maintenance.

I've found having a printer at home really convenient. If you're running late for something, it's so much easier to print something out while you eat your toast, than running like a mad thing into the library (or printer depo) to get a few pages before a seminar or meeting.

Also, if you ever want to print anything unusual, its much easier to do it yourself, than faff with someone else's printer, or go to a print shop and try to explain what it is you want.

I don't know what your course will be like, but a lot of my lecturers used to provide paper copies of the lecture/notes at the start of class.