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College Student Question
- Thread starter butterwm
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Check the course requirements but if he's doing biology it probably doesn't matter. My daughter uses an M2 Air for biochemistry degree. All the software required usually runs fine on a mac as it's open source stuff that's glued together usually. She spends most of her time in O365 apps, SPSS, R. All the gene editing stuff works fine on a mac as does the synthesis, CAS software and the likes. She typesets stuff in MacTeX with TeXShop (as do I on the mathematics side of things). Hold out until he is registered and use the student discount.
As for the "hard science" side, I think everyone seems to use Macs or Linux these days apart from the psychology and psychotherapy lot who are all weird.
The absolute bottom end machines are probably fine for undergrad use. If you need more compute the college/university usually has clusters you can leverage. Storage wise, ah hell I've been collecting crap for 50 years and I can't fill up a 256 gig SSD yet.
Edit: worth noting she started on a high end thinkpad T-series and it sucked.
I’d definitely go for the air over the pro. Usually if anything more powerful is needed it would be mentioned in the program requirements. I have a M1 Max 16” (best computer I’ve owned) but I never take it to campus when I can help it just because of how heavy and bulky it is. I opt instead just to carry a 12.9” ipad pro + apple pencil.
As far as mac vs pc, while I’d try to convince him to pick a mac, I wouldn’t force him if he really wants a pc. (in which case i’d look at the Dell XPS 13 series)
Go for light weight and battery life. For undergraduate work I don't think you need a TB of storage (unless you are film editing, but they would tell you that in the course outline), remember the previous semester's work will end up archived (or deleted) anyway. Do get an external drive for backups. Accidental deletions happen. The best reason to get a bigger SSD in the Mac is to have a separate partition for TimeMachine, but that does not obviate the need for a separate backup.
Some good advice here.
Vital to check what the school recommends as My son with a Macbook pro needed a Windows machine for engineering because so much of the software they use either doesn't run os slows to a crawl on emulation.
Definitely see what your child likes and how they want to use it. If they want to play games then forget it
Some of the Windows machines fold back and the screen works with a pen so they can take notes like an ipad. Is that interesting? It sounds it but they may not use it much in reality
Don't be tempted to go for bigger than 13". That's the perfect size.
The Air is more than enough.
Don't be tempted to spend for the top spec with a big hard drive. Pay for icloud, back everything up and change in 4 or 5 years it's cheaper and better.
Then don't forget all the other things that make the Mac great.
Windows works really well these days and is nothing like as troublesome or annoying as it was a decade ago, but no Windows machine has a trackpad that works half as well as on the Apple ones. But do they prefer a mouse? Some people hate the trackpad.
If they have an iphone then everything is in the same universe and they can use handoff to start something on one device and finish it on another. All the passwords are shared and protected with keychain. You have way more security than you do on any Windows machine. If you take a decent iCould subscription and back everything up, that way if the device is lost stolen or broken it's still protected and easy to restore.
(We bought Macbook pros in 2018 and the Air M1 we bought in 21 was less that half the price and twice as powerful so don't buy the most expensive machine and hope you are 'future proofing' it. You aren't)
Then the macs are really strong. My son being used to throwing his bag around with his mac in it, added his brand new Asus (which is a beautiful machine) and went to college. The screen did not even last a single day but the mac was untouched.
He's much more careful now but if you don't have Windows machines, you forget sometimes the noisy fans, the fragility of the plastic cases, the updates and nag screens, the antivirus software running in the background......
Vital to check what the school recommends as My son with a Macbook pro needed a Windows machine for engineering because so much of the software they use either doesn't run os slows to a crawl on emulation.
Definitely see what your child likes and how they want to use it. If they want to play games then forget it
Some of the Windows machines fold back and the screen works with a pen so they can take notes like an ipad. Is that interesting? It sounds it but they may not use it much in reality
Don't be tempted to go for bigger than 13". That's the perfect size.
The Air is more than enough.
Don't be tempted to spend for the top spec with a big hard drive. Pay for icloud, back everything up and change in 4 or 5 years it's cheaper and better.
Then don't forget all the other things that make the Mac great.
Windows works really well these days and is nothing like as troublesome or annoying as it was a decade ago, but no Windows machine has a trackpad that works half as well as on the Apple ones. But do they prefer a mouse? Some people hate the trackpad.
If they have an iphone then everything is in the same universe and they can use handoff to start something on one device and finish it on another. All the passwords are shared and protected with keychain. You have way more security than you do on any Windows machine. If you take a decent iCould subscription and back everything up, that way if the device is lost stolen or broken it's still protected and easy to restore.
(We bought Macbook pros in 2018 and the Air M1 we bought in 21 was less that half the price and twice as powerful so don't buy the most expensive machine and hope you are 'future proofing' it. You aren't)
Then the macs are really strong. My son being used to throwing his bag around with his mac in it, added his brand new Asus (which is a beautiful machine) and went to college. The screen did not even last a single day but the mac was untouched.
He's much more careful now but if you don't have Windows machines, you forget sometimes the noisy fans, the fragility of the plastic cases, the updates and nag screens, the antivirus software running in the background......
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If he plans to carry it around and use it in classes, a 13” MBA would be a better choice. As for the specs, M4-24GB-1TB would be good choice (and future proof) if you can afford it.
However, if he insists on having a Windows laptop, it's better to buy him something he'll use than a fancy Mac that will collect dust.
However, if he insists on having a Windows laptop, it's better to buy him something he'll use than a fancy Mac that will collect dust.
Thanks so much for everyone’s inputs on this. We went to the Apple Store last night to let him put his hands on all the different models. In the end, he liked the 14 inch MBP the best. We are lucky because he is a very cost conscious kid and is just looking at the base model. He liked the display better along with the speakers, new webcam and extra ports. He felt like it was built better and would last longer then the Air which the salesman agreed with him on that. Since he’s just looking at the base model MBP the cost difference is only $300 so I can live with that. I’m hoping to maybe get lucky and catch a good Black Friday or Cyber Monday deal and close that cost difference even more.
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I agree with the others, a MacBook Air is the way to go, if he wants a Mac. Though there are also plenty of lightweight windows laptops that are great, too.
I have a quite high-specced Lenovo Legion laptop, and honestly, while I love it, it is very annoying to lug around. I was looking at 16” MBPs but decided against it due to the lack of upgradability and port selection, plus I wanted to game a bit. I used to have an M1 MacBook Air, which I used for nearly 4 years.
Desktop in the dorm is a good idea though, I do the same thing. It’s really nice! I got a good deal on a 2019 iMac, which has been great.
I have a quite high-specced Lenovo Legion laptop, and honestly, while I love it, it is very annoying to lug around. I was looking at 16” MBPs but decided against it due to the lack of upgradability and port selection, plus I wanted to game a bit. I used to have an M1 MacBook Air, which I used for nearly 4 years.
Desktop in the dorm is a good idea though, I do the same thing. It’s really nice! I got a good deal on a 2019 iMac, which has been great.
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Oh! Also, I wouldn't worry about app compatibility. Hell, I've taken music production classes, and even those specialized courses are bring-your-own-software.
I am in High School and I love my MacBook Air M2, definitely go with the MacBook Air
They don't have to be gaming laptops.
For most kids in college, a gaming laptop or an MBP would be an overkill. All that weight and unnecessary processing power that will remain unused. Apple crowd is great on upselling to each other and love to recommend a fully specced out MacBook Pro for basic word processing and emails.
Unless students are expected to run specialized software that has high hardware requirements (which they should find out ahead of time), they will mostly use Office apps, PDFs, email and remote meeting apps like Zoom.
A base MBA will be more than sufficient. An MBA with a good size SSD much better. An MBA with a good size SSD + an iPad (any model) with Apple Pencil for taking handwriting notes and marking up PDFs will be a perfect flexible setup for just about anybody, that will last through college and beyond.
If Windows is preferred, I'd go with a lightweight, long battery life 2-in-1 so they could mark up PDFs right on their laptop screen.
All modern Mac laptops have more than enough battery life. Light weight is good, but so are the far better displays and speakers and performance of slightly heavier MBPs.
The biggest issue with gaming laptops isn’t their size. But the fact they only get a couple of hours max on battery.
I’ve used gaming laptops for a long time due to no desk space for a desktop and also having to use a work laptop too.
They’re more of a portable desktop rather than a functional productivity laptop.
That base 14” M4 MBP really is a good value for what it provides.
Nice choice!
(Don’t forget that you can get the education discount from Apple, if you don’t see any better deals during Black Friday. That should knock a fee bucks off.)
Congrats, wishes your kid every possible success.
I like screen size more than most, but always landed on 14" for the long history I have with Tinkpads. 14" is a great option for portablilty. (And yes, the MBP is a way better machine than Thinkpads and has been so since gen II unibodies).
Good choice 👍
Also check Costco. If your product is available there [online or in-store] Costco gives a 90-day return policy on electronics that can be useful. I do not know if the edu discount applies at Costco.