Mac Text program and MS Word

If Word is required for your class you should probably get it. You could also take your chances with OpenOffice or NeoOffice, both of which save to the .doc format.

 

i also believe that iWork can save in .doc [although im not 100% sure; i know it can open it, i forget if it can save it]

just google iWork Trial and check it out [you have to ultimately buy it though, but you can get it in the Mac App Store for a decent amount [15-20 bucks i think??]]

 

Pages (apple's version of word) can open and save (well, export) in .doc format however it has a tendency to mess with formatting a little bit. Personally though, I find it runs better on both my macbook and my iMac than Word does.

Pages (as well as numbers and keynote) cost around 20 dollars each on the app store.

 

If you are a student, check to see if your school has any special agreements with microsoft for student pricing or volume licensing on MS software. Otherwise office is about $150 bucks and has 3 licenses good for 3 machines. You could see if a friend will split it with you...

Pages will work, but as said before, will tend to mildly screw with formatting, but is a fully capable word processor which I love to use. About 20 bucks on the Mac App Store.

OpenOffice has recently had a rocky past and many if not all of their developers went off on their own and started http://www.libreoffice.org/ which I have read good things about and its completely free.