How much ram and which macbook should I get for a college student?

[gottabegood]

My neice will be a freshmen in a junior college as a student athlete playing volleyball and studying nutrition. She needs a laptop for web surfing, writing papers, sending emails, watching and editing some volleyball videos (to possibly make recruiting videos to give to colleges), and uploading photos.


Which MacBook, MacBook pro or air, would you recommend and how much ram should she get?

 

[kohlson]

Technically, anything you choose will be fine.
I considered a MacBook when my daughter (now graduated) was in school, but dismissed it because it has only one port. Which meant she would need multiport dongle, which she would probably lose.
We ended up with a TB 13-MBP, with AppleCare (recommended). It had the keyboard and logic board replaced after 3 months, and some depot-level service (a mfg issue, and it was gone for a week) after 2 years. 8GB RAM and 512 GB storage. For her, this was the correct configuration.
If she needed one now, I would consider another 13-MBP, or an MBA. We have 3 MBAs in the family, and they are rock solid despite looking their age (5+ years old). But unknown if the new MBA will be as reliable as the old.

I understand the RAM adage "as much as you can afford" and so on. But we drew a line in the sand wrt budget, and storage won out over price. I would probably make the same decision again. MacOS is very efficient with RAM.