I wasn't really a math person in grade school, but I remember needing a scientific calculator in middle school and a graphing calculator in highschool.

When I got to college I retook the remedial math courses (starting with the equivelent of Algebra II) before I could take calculus (and the other math courses for a CS degree).

Not a single professor of a math course let us use a graphing calculator, and infact, most had a "no calculator" policy.

I never really put that together: you can learn the same curriculum with or without a calculator.

In my college experience, students weren't permitted to use graphing calculators in math classes, and other math-heavy classes (eg, physics, chemistry, etc) used simple math on exams and permitted laptops during labs/classwork.

Same, the only time I used a TI graphing calculator was during one unit of high school math. I don't think we used them during the test for that semester either.

The general rule was scientific calculator only.

I only needed a TI-83 in high school, but I think my college classed wanted me to buy a new TI-89. I still have my TI-89 in my office though I haven't used it ever... no idea where the TI-83 went.

The only time I was allowed to use a graphing calculator in college was a statistics class. My batteries actually crapped out right before the final and the professor was nice/trusting enough to let me use a TI-89 emulator on my phone.