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Med Student.. Help!
- Thread starter gfritz90
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Hi from a fellow med student (MS3)
Battery life is probably the most important thing to have in your computer, there are a lot of times you may not have an outlet close and having that battery life makes life so much easier. I have a macbook pro 15 and it lasts a good 8 hours under normal circumstances but to be honest if I could get some more life it would be amazing, I would never have to bring my charger which is extra space and weight to deal with. Do not skimp on processing because you will be running a lot programs at the same time (ex. pandora, pdfs, multiple web pages, digital copies of books, etc...). Hard drive space is not a huge issue, I use dropbox to store all of my documents and you can always buy an external hard drive or sxdc card (up to 128 gig).
I might suggest the 13 Macbook Air w/ 512gb, if you do feel more need for performance the 13 Macbook pro. The Macbook looks nice in all but it doesn't have the battery life of the Air and the performance of the Pro, its the computer in the middle but not heads and shoulders above in any category.
I am starting medical school this summer myself - any thoughts on the rMBP 15" in your experience? I am thinking of picking up the top model as soon as the Back to School promo goes live next month.
I figure with all the multitasking I will do in medicine (multiple browser tabs, PDFs, word documents for research, OneNote, torrents, iTunes, etc. etc.) the processing power will come in handy as will the screen real estate for productivity.
You think its a good buy?
StarStrike
IMHO a 15 is too big to carry around all the time. A lug mine around as I do video recording and photos of RC stuff on the side. Realistically a rMB would've been my ideal laptop for medical school. The kind of multitasking you listed above would benefit more from 8gb of ram rather than a quad core. The strike against the rMB is that it's just too expensive for what you get. My 2013 rmbp 13 also gets much better battery life than my wife's rMB.
A retina screen is a god send when you have to look at pages of PDFs looking at medical journals.
Hi, first of all congratulation on matriculating!!!
I like the 15 inch a lot, its a late 2013 2.3ghz Haswell/16gb ram/512gb. Its way more power than you will need for school (think 90+% idle cpu most of the time). The extra screen space does help with having multiple webpages/word docs/etcetera up at the same time. It has served me well for the last couple years and it is not cumbersome at all.
I would also suggest you look into the macbook pro 13, it will have more battery life and still have a lot of performance as they use the more efficient Broadwell chips (how well is you school setup with outlets?). You could order it with 16gb ram so it would be able to manage a lot of open programs. You may also want to pour the money you saved into a second monitor or tv.
Over all whether you pick macbook 13 or 15 you really can't go wrong they will both be awesome machines.
Here are the specs. Go to the Apple store or Best Buy and see what feels right to you. The only difference is 1 pound and 2 inches additional depth.
- Height: 0.71 inch (1.8 cm)
- Width: 12.35 inches (31.4 cm)
- Depth: 8.62 inches (21.9 cm)
- Weight: 3.48 pounds (1.58 kg)2
- Height: 0.71 inch (1.8 cm)
- Width: 14.13 inches (35.89 cm)
- Depth: 9.73 inches (24.71 cm)
- Weight: 4.49 pounds (2.04 kg)2
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Retina MacBook Pro. I have the late-2013 model, and it's perfect for college! Plenty of battery life and processing power. I'm in education, and the ports are definitely important.
Best of luck in med school!
Best of luck in med school!
Hi, first of all congratulation on matriculating!!!
I like the 15 inch a lot, its a late 2013 2.3ghz Haswell/16gb ram/512gb. Its way more power than you will need for school (think 90+% idle cpu most of the time). The extra screen space does help with having multiple webpages/word docs/etcetera up at the same time. It has served me well for the last couple years and it is not cumbersome at all.
I would also suggest you look into the macbook pro 13, it will have more battery life and still have a lot of performance as they use the more efficient Broadwell chips (how well is you school setup with outlets?). You could order it with 16gb ram so it would be able to manage a lot of open programs. You may also want to pour the money you saved into a second monitor or tv.
Over all whether you pick macbook 13 or 15 you really can't go wrong they will both be awesome machines.
Here are the specs. Go to the Apple store or Best Buy and see what feels right to you. The only difference is 1 pound and 2 inches additional depth.
- Height: 0.71 inch (1.8 cm)
- Width: 12.35 inches (31.4 cm)
- Depth: 8.62 inches (21.9 cm)
- Weight: 3.48 pounds (1.58 kg)2
- Height: 0.71 inch (1.8 cm)
- Width: 14.13 inches (35.89 cm)
- Depth: 9.73 inches (24.71 cm)
- Weight: 4.49 pounds (2.04 kg)2
Thanks!
I was thinking along the same lines myself. I am currently on a 2009 15" MBP - I didn't find it to be too much of an issue in school and I found the larger screen to be really helpful when I was in pharmacy. I'm not too worried about carrying around an extra pound with the 15" compared to the 13". My biggest worry with stepping down in size isn't so much the power, but the screen real estate - I am always running multiple programs side by side / split screen.
I am not too sure how the school is set up with outlets - however, it is a newer medical school so I am pretty sure there should be plenty. Using the extra money for an external monitor/TV might not be a bad idea if going with a 13" - though it could be more of a pain than just using a 15".
StarStrike
I agree with you. If the rMB was half the price, I think it would probably be the perfect thing for school - though it is currently too darn expensive. Not sure if it helps, but I also have a 10" Galaxy Note (from almost 2 years back) as well that I hope/plan to use for note taking. I recently ended up getting a Wacom bamboo pen (the S Pen was too small for regular use) and tested it out at a medical conference last week - it seems to work really well!
As a software dev who constantly travels around the globe, the 15" is actually pretty portable for its size and weight. Slim enough to be unobtrusive, and big enough to have several windows open simultaneously without switching spaces, and small enough to fit into a business-class airplane table.
You won't need the processing power, but the screen estate is a godsend.
Oh yes they are much nicer to work on for text, to be honest if budget isn't an issue the retina screen is always worth it over almost any other consideration in my opinion.
I will starting an Orthopaedic Surgery residency this July at University of Maryland. Very excited but partially terrified haha - all at the same time. Anyways, this has been a fun thread to follow and made me think a lot about my upcoming purchase. I think my thoughts are echoed by many others on this forum for the OP... rMBP for sure. Probably 13". If you want to upgrade anything, do 16gb RAM instead of processor. And most of all, ENJOY IT! It will be great machine and honestly the least of your worries for the next 4 years haha. Hang in there, it's worth it.
What is a good one? I've been using Zotero for a few years and it has been awesome as it ties into Safari and Word (with hot keys its easy to add references too!). I'm guessing that should be able to do the trick?
I guess its a lot of reading and typing might as well go with the rmbp. But if you need portability id suggest the mba otherwise. 12" mb the keyboard feels like hitting cement!
Zotero is excellent and IMHO, more reliable than many of the commercial RMs. If you're already accustomed to the venerable Word and Zotero combo, stick with what works. I only strayed from Zotero when I was fed up with using Word 2011 and began vetting word processors that Zotero didn't support. Should you ever find Word lacking (and Office for Mac 2016 isn't terrible), there's an Alfred 2 workflow called ZotQuery that gives you global cite while you write functionality, therefore you're no longer tied to Word and Libre Office; you can move freely from Word to Scrivener, Mellel, even Byword and take Zotero with you. End Note is good for collaboration and at one time I was quite fond of Papers. I found Bookends' search capabilities superior to the other RMs I tried. I was never able to get Bookends to work with my college's library, but it has a storied history with the Mac platform and the developer's support is legendary. Occasionally, I'd export a Zotero collection and import it into Bookends just to quickly and accurately perform a full text search within large quantities of PDFs. I guess by invest I meant invest time in learning how to use an RM, and it sounds like you already have. Best of luck.
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15" retina display. Screen is crucial for medical school.
Staring at the screen most of the day. PDF after PDF.
Portability shouldn't be an issue if you are carrying around a backpack.
You won't be carrying it around the wards. 90% of the time it'll be used at a desk and chair so 15" over 13".
Only drawback compared to the 13" is battery life.
Staring at the screen most of the day. PDF after PDF.
Portability shouldn't be an issue if you are carrying around a backpack.
You won't be carrying it around the wards. 90% of the time it'll be used at a desk and chair so 15" over 13".
Only drawback compared to the 13" is battery life.
And looking at a fellow med student with a 2008 alienware the other day... the extra weight of a 15" shouldn't be an issue, especially given what people had to lug around just a few years ago.
Consider when going to medical school involved carrying Gray's, Robbins, Harrison's, etc.
Consider when going to medical school involved carrying Gray's, Robbins, Harrison's, etc.
I was hoping those heavy-ass textbooks would all have iPad friendly apps 14 years after I graduated lol... You guys are spoiled, I was hauling a Dell 15 inch 8 lbs behemoth those days, and the iPad was still science fiction....
Thanks for the suggestions! I haven't used Zotero since Pharmacy school and I notice it doesn't seem to play well with the 2016 Office Preview - I'm hoping there will be a fix sometime soon. I'll take a look at ZotQuery and maybe have a look at some other RMs to see if they work with Word (I hear Mendeley is supposed to be really good!).
Haha for sure! I think it is pretty much settled for me. Now just have to wait for Apple's BTS promotion. I'm thinking of picking up a Thule 15" case and the backpack as well from the Apple site.
Inkling - Student consult isn't bad. Definitely a lot easier with the textbooks these days.