Looking for a FP for university use

[Mags]

When I was in University I loved to use a Sheaffer Targa. Medium nib. They are around on EBay and took cartridges or a converter. I use to use Osmiroid green all the time. Ahhhh the memories

[kaisnowbird]

Here is my $0.02:

In case you are still thinking about CdA Ecridor, I'd say that as much as I love the pen, it's not very suited for Uni environment, because:
- Expensive looking, which encourages sticky fingers;
- the pen is thin and the grip section thinner, may not be suited for long writing sessions;
- I've heard of at least two cases where the inner cap becomes loose after some extensive use.

+1 on the Pilot Vanishing Point.
It's super convenient. Their nibs are highly reliable. And they come in many colours and finishes, which means you can pick your favourite that it will standout on a desk full of notes, books and other clutter that often happen to uni students. Some Japanese retailers on ebay sells them with 'special alloy' nibs, instead of gold ones, which reduce the price even further. The alloy Fine is definitely finer than most ball points.
Pilot cartridges are cheap. I'd just keep a small pack of them in the bag together with a trusty ballpoint (don't ban me) in case the ink runs out and not to worry about carrying a back up FP.

[ac12]

I used an old Parker F nib. And that seemed about right for use on college ruled paper to cram as much notes onto a page as I could, and be able to insert additional notes between lines and make small notations. I do not know what the old Parker F would correspond to on the TWSBI, but it is very similar to a Lamy XF nib, about .020 to .022 inch (approx 0.5mm) tip width. But for that small a nib, you have to select your paper well. If the paper is not SMOOTH, it will slow down your note taking, by creating friction and drag on the tip.

If the paper that you use is not smooth, I would go up to a 0.030 inch (0.7mm) nib, as a reasonable compromise. This is the width of the Lamy F nib.

The finer nibs also make your ink supply last longer.
But you are cornered in to darker inks due to an optical illusion. As the ink line gets narrower the ink appears to be lighter. This is due to your eye seeing more white paper than ink. This happened on 2 of my XF nib pens, where the blue looked washed out. My option is blue-black or black ink for those XF nib pens, to give the eye more contrast to see the ink.

[snedwos]

The Lamy Studio is another great option (my indisputable daily writer), and the Lamy Nexx series is also fantastic especially if you don't get on with the grip on the safari/vista/al-star. I have a twsbi fine nib. Too dry, not wonderful to write with.

[Oncdoc]

Decimo is lighter and easier for me for quick writing than my regular vanishing point pen. Sailor professional gear slim is also excellent. Don't loose them though.

[GHCToolman]

I used a Pelikan M200 through graduate school and that's the pen I would vote for. Just a great writer with good ink capacity.

I have a Vanishing Point now and love it, but the ink capacity may be limiting depending on your volume of note taking. The clip on the VP can also be an issue for some depending on writing style.

[Woody]

Lamy Safari. It can suffer a beat down the keep on tickin. Get some good ink and rock.

[velo]

The first fountain pen I bought for myself was a Lamy Al-star aluminium. Purchased to use at uni because my handwriting was so messy and made even worse when trying to keep up with lecturers and tutors. It's battered and bruised but I still own and use that pen. Never missed a beat.

[iqhu]

Lots of my post somehow didn't make it through.

Anyways, thank you all for your suggestions, I finally decided on a TWSBI 580. I am the geek who loves seeing the inner workings

[velo]

I really like mine. Cool seeing ink in the pen and on the paper with the 1.1 stub.

[Fawkes]

I think you made the right choice and since you like demonstrators, the Pelikan M800 demo with engravings might be an interesting choice in the future. Its an expensive pen, but one to shoot for a graduation treat.