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Calling All/Any College Students: What do you use and/or suggest for computing?

I got through ungrad just fine with an old Macbook Air (Rev B) just fine. However, I did a lot of school work in the library and comp labs. So you've also got to think about how you study and where you think you'll be most effective at getting stuff done.

Just my $0.02, but I'd get something that's just enough to get you through the next four years. You don't want to have to throw multiple computer purchases on top of your tutition, board, and books.
 
a.chufong said:
I got through ungrad just fine with an old Macbook Air (Rev B) just fine. However, I did a lot of school work in the library and comp labs. So you've also got to think about how you study and where you think you'll be most effective at getting stuff done.
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+ check with the school based on your curriculum. Ran into this issue after buying daughter a Mac for school, only to have them tell her it was 100% unsupported for her engineering curriculum. w00t UVA :(
 
Ccrew said:
+ check with the school based on your curriculum. Ran into this issue after buying daughter a Mac for school, only to have them tell her it was 100% unsupported for her engineering curriculum. w00t UVA :(
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On the plus side, UVA is a great school :)
 
I am attending medical school at the University of Buffalo and I use my MBP. I have the 13" MBP with the dual core i7 and 750 GB HDD and I think its the perfect computer for classes. Its small and light enough to easily slip into your bag yet plenty powerful enough for any tasks that need doing. To be perfectly honest for school, unless you major in computer sciences or maybe technology you really don't need the i7 the i5 will be more than enough power for school work. I know a lot of people rag on optical drives I find for school its still highly relevant, most medical text books come with a CD that has virtual labs or other useful materials and its very handy being able to load it run right in class, I imagine textbooks for other majors are probably similar. The reason why I use my MBP over my MBA is because, 1 the HDD is much larger and I can store entire electronic text books on here, plus my professors make podcasts and notes of their lectures available for download, with my MBP I don't have to worry about running out of space. 2. I have 8GB of RAM in my MBP so it really flies along and handles multitasking better than my MBA. 3. It is still very handy to have an onboard optical drive to use in class. Also while my MBA is light its not like the MBP is a 25lbs weight, the MBP is plenty lean so its easy to carry.

So I would recommend any MBP. To be honest the entry level 13" MBP will serve you very well for university courses and you'll be very happy with it. That being said if you want a bigger screen or a quad core processor then go for it, you'll still be happy. In the end the MBP beats the MBA everyday all day hands down. Hoped this help, one student to another.
 
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I've gone through a few different set ups in my college years...and I think I've settled on a good one, although currently it's the most expensive of all of them.

Setup 1 (2008):
2008 13" MacBook

Setup 2 (2010):
2010 15" MacBook Pro
iPad
only had it for a few months, then sold them for a MacBook Air and future iMac combo

Setup 3 (Late 2010):
2010 13" MacBook Air

Setup 4 (Current, 2011-12):
2011 11" MacBook Air
2011 27" iMac
and most recently: iPad 3 (I really missed the iPad when I sold it, so I waited until this revision to buy one again)

Granted, my current setup is a bit overkill for what I really NEED, but for my overall workflow, it works quite nicely. I've been trying to see if the iPad can replace what I need a portable device to do, and so far it's been able to do about 95% of what I do on my MacBook Air, so I may decide on selling it in the future.

If you want to go with a single device, I'd probably recommend a 13" MacBook Air. When I had my 13" MacBook and 15" MacBook Pro, carrying them back and forth across campus got tedious and especially once you added books and everything else, it gets quite heavy. The extra weight saved with a MacBook Air really does come in handy.
 
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You kids and your supercomputers at college these days. :)

I got through my undergrad years with pencil and paper, and using the 80286/80386 machines at ASU's computer labs... when I could get time on the waiting list. Turbo Pascal FTW.

It was easier about a decade ago for law school. I bought a POS Toshiba Wintel laptop that I didn't expect to see survive the process... and it didn't. It gave up the ghost six months after the bar exam after being rode hard and put away wet for just over three years, and it looked every inch of its ordeal. Not long after that, the Apple Intel changeover happened, and I saw my opportunity finally to switch to a Mac. No regrets.

Now that you've gone and gotten off my lawn like I wanted, I would recommend the MBP because you want to have that extra bit of device connectivity and expandability -- it seems very often in college there are either projects or situations where you need to use your computer in an ad-hoc manner in a way you never expected, and I tend to think that the Air, while a fine machine, will not rise to that challenge based on its inherent minimalism. If you can afford it, an iMac + iPad combo might be even better, because in all reality your portability needs are 95% of the time going to be limited to note-taking, paper preparation (Pages for iOS!) and internet lookup/consumption, and then at home you have a substantially more powerful main workbox in the iMac that is even more versatile than what a MBP can give you, in terms of ad-hoc functionality. The main thing is to expect the unexpected, because that is what is going to happen.

Or you could buy a POS Wintel laptop like I did, use it until you are grinding its rims on the asphalt, and use the money you save to buy the greatest loaded Mac you ever wanted upon graduation. Your call.
 
Bio sciences?

I wouldn't mind knowing what hardware people who are studying biological sciences; biomedicine; human biology etc went for and was the software applicable only to one particular OS which determined hardware choice or were there mac and windows versions at undergraduate level?
 
MacBook Air is a great tool. I used a MacBook Pro 15" through college, but didn't bring it with me to classes.
 
I'm in engineering, and personally I love my setup: 27" iMac at home, and iPad on the go. With that being said there are cons to having just the iPad on the go, mainly sometimes I have to use the school computers to get some work done when I'm on campus. However, even with that, I would take the portability over that any day. I have all my class texts at hand, also can easily look things up if I need to. I dont use the iPad for note taking tho, I tried for one semester but found that the good old pen and paper was the way to go for me
 
Currently Im using a 2008 15" MacBook Pro (2.5ghs Core2Duo, 500Gb 7.2k, 4Gb RAM, 512 Graphic Card) but its slowing down now, probably going to get the new one once its released. I do a lot of 3D modeling tho. I also have an iPad2

My recommendations would be to get an iMac and an iPad. In total it would cost about the same as a 15" Macbook Pro but be way better. Take notes with evernote on the iPad and use the iMac in your dorm. Gosh I wish the iPad was invented when I started college, if it was this is what I would have done.
 
I'm currently a B. Comm student using an iPad and MBP. I use an iPad for for all my on the go needs. I use the MBP at home it is my dad's laptop. I will be getting the iMac once it is released. If needed I use the computers at the library.
 
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