Well, I'm doing Mechanical Engineering...so far, i've not had much use for running any intensive programs on my laptop...but still, i got a MBP yesterday - it's just a more powrful laptop and I wanted that extra real estate on the screen...personally, I would say go for the white mid-range macbook and not the blackbook (if you want an MB - the white is just more value of money) and go for an MBP if you feel the extra graphics card, and larger screen (if you're doing mechanical, or architecture for instance) will prove useful. All engineering colleges should have labs running any software you may need, but if you do need to run something like Solidworks on your laptop, then the pro would be the better option