I agree Outlook is the best for business use cases but for a college student, iCal is great. I have a colour for each subject, an "events" calendar (non-academic, recurring) and a "significant" calendar for important events such as exams. The setup works great for me but I can see why it wouldn't scale.
>That guy needs to join the ranks of the unemployed.
I've never dealt with the Apple "Geniuses" but I know a lot of people have and didn't like it at all. To be honest, the only time I've had kernel panics were caused by Little Snitch (now fixed). After an update about a year ago, I've never had one since. For me, OS X is extremely reliable.
Rather than have a different color code for each type of event, I have 3 different calendars on Google Calendars. One is my personal stuff. One is my ex-wife's work schedule, which is relevant because the third one is our daughter's schedule as she goes back and forth between us. I also have some calendars added that are managed externally such as a hockey team's game schedule, etc. Each calendar displays as a different color in the UI. Google Calendar may very well be a great solution for you.
>That guy needs to join the ranks of the unemployed.
I've never dealt with the Apple "Geniuses" but I know a lot of people have and didn't like it at all. To be honest, the only time I've had kernel panics were caused by Little Snitch (now fixed). After an update about a year ago, I've never had one since. For me, OS X is extremely reliable.