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Retina Macbook Pro OR Macbook Air for college ?
- Thread starter lilcorey10
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I had a 11 inch MBA my last year of grad school and it was so easy to use in class. Although, I ended up using my iPad more because my texts were on my iPad and I could annotate my notes in iAnnotate PDF...rMBP would be cumbersome in class and take up to much room on your desk. BUT...now that I am out of school I want a rMBP.
It's curriculum dependent, but most introductory courses introduce you to basic programming constructs in the school's chosen language (which often dictates whether it's got an object-oriented perspective).
pretty much what d00d said, you'll be introduced to CS foundation using the chosen language. We had quarters so it was a 3 part series and they built upon each other. It was also the weed out course in my school, about 1/3rd of the students were left by the end of the last quarter. Not to make you nervous but really, after the first year, things start to get interesting and pretty much everyone who passes that year long series will continue on to graduation, unless they choose not to.
For any CS student, I also highly recommend doing a research project or two with one of your professors. The research projects were interesting even if a PhD isn't in your sights. I focused on machine learning and it was great to work 1 on 1 with a professor.
Stick with it that first few semesters. You need to get the weed out stuff out of the way before moving on to interesting things. I did CS for my undergrad with a 2007 Macbook and it handled all of my coding just fine. Running Microsoft Word took more resources then anything I wrote in school.
Grad school on the other hand... I'v been working on live RGB/Depth video processing using a Microsoft Xbox Kinect and it really is pushing the limits of my Core2Duo. My CPU monitor shows even simple processing taking it up to 70% CPU useage. I'm going to be upgrading to a MBPr over the MBA so I can tap into the discrete GPU. Maybe it will be overkill, but I'd rather overshoot my needs then undershoot.
On an ironic sidenote, it's much easier to set up a Kinect for programming in OS X then it is in Windows.
Grad school on the other hand... I'v been working on live RGB/Depth video processing using a Microsoft Xbox Kinect and it really is pushing the limits of my Core2Duo. My CPU monitor shows even simple processing taking it up to 70% CPU useage. I'm going to be upgrading to a MBPr over the MBA so I can tap into the discrete GPU. Maybe it will be overkill, but I'd rather overshoot my needs then undershoot.
On an ironic sidenote, it's much easier to set up a Kinect for programming in OS X then it is in Windows.
Now you're just being asinine. Just accept the fact that the retina is way overboard for any college student.
I'll make it simple on you. If you're parents are rolling in it and are paying for your laptop, then yes get the retina. It might be one of your last chances to spend money that isn't your's.
If you have to pay for it, or your loans are paying for it, buy the MBA. It is everything you need for all 4 years of college.
PS, if you want extra coding space an external monitor or 2 is significantly better than looking at tiny (but really crisp) text on 1 screen.
How do I know all this? Just finished my degree in physics. Coded in Java, C++, Matlab, Mathematica and Igor. External monitors > Retina for coding. You can easily split the screen up into your console(s), wiki, Pset and facebook
(you all know you had that extra window open all those late nights)----------
+1
If you're doing anything actually processor (or GPU) intensive, it will be done on a cluster.
Hence why no college student needs anything greater than 13" MBP (go for the air if you'd rather). Anyone saying otherwise is just trying to convince themselves (or others) so that they feel better about their new toy.
