Re setting up a laptop - Migration Assistant?

I recently left a company and my Macbook Pro seems to have been left with me as a parting gift. (I'm hoping, no one has said anything for quite a while...) Should this turn out to be true, I want to wipe it clean and start fresh, while keeping all my old files, and as many apps as I can. The way it's currently set up I don't have administrator access, so it hampers how much I can do with fixing/troubleshooting things etc. So I want to install a clean system.

What's the best way go about this whole process? Migration assistant? If so, is there a way to use migration assistant not directly from mac to mac, but from this mac to an externanl hard drive, then wipe this one clean and install the system, and then use Migration Assistant to bring everything over to this laptop, now with the new system?

Or is there a better way? Thanks!

 

I should have noted, I'm thinking that if I can't copy things off that way, I'll just forgo the apps that are on the laptop and reinstall those apps that I have...Doing it that way, would migration assistant be of help, or do I just copy off my home folder?