for engineering degree?

i am in the same boat. it depends on your college - the easiest thing is to ask them.

as a piece of information, many colleges provide the engineering software in their own computer labs and do not require you to run anything on your own notebook, however this is college dependent, so again, contact your college.

 

what school?

and I have never done anything beyond word/excel/powerpoint on my macbook.

if you need to do heavy computing stuff like solidworks or autocad, all the engineering labs have them.

i don't even know if you need a blackbook unless you need the extra storage space or unless you REALLY like that black color.

I have a the white mid-range macbook and it suits me perfectly. I use my 500GB external for storage if necessary.

 

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

 

Design Project

A powerful laptop will be needed when you start working on your design project. If you want to stay at school all day in the lab then don't worry about it. If you want to do things on your own time, then get a powerful computer, either now or when you feel the pressure in 2 years.