which 2012 macbook for engineering student

[skipcooney]

My son is starting an engineering masters program in August and needs to replace his 5 yr old MacBook. Budget is up to 2K for a computer that will take him through the next 5 years. Student prices are shown.
Options:
15-inch MBP, 2.6 GHz quad i7, 750GB HD, $1,999
15-inch MBP, 2.3 GHz quad i7, Retina, 256GB SSD, $1,999
13-inch MBP, 2.9 GHz dual i7, 750GB HD, $1,399
all with 8GB RAM

Considerations--
SSD is much faster and more durable.
Retina MBP is nearly impossible to repair down the road.
He may need more than 256GB to run mac and windows programs.

Advise appreciated.

 

[HipHopTrex]

As an ME major, I can say it depends. If he's mechanical I'd say any of the macbook pros would be perfect, with a bigger harddrive for parallels purposes. (I'd avoid retina because personally I rarely adopt new products in the first few months of debut)

If he's Electric, probably the cheapest pro would suffice, because there's not as many windows programs that he'd have to use to the best of my knowledge, if there's any.

Computer? probably once again the 13 inch pro. But you wouldn't need to upgrade the specs a lot. If at all

Civil? I was originally interested in civil and I'd say the 15 inch. But I'm a hardcore mac user and I hate doing autocad on a mac. It's okay, but I believe the Windows version is a lot easier.

I avoid Chemical Engineering classes like the plague, so I can't really say on that one. And I have no experience in OE(or whatever you'd like to call the oil vampire engineers) Or Nuclear.

Hope I helped if you have anymore questions, let me know.

 

[skipcooney]

Thanks HipHopTrex. He is going to study chemical engineering.

 

[Ccrew]

Thanks HipHopTrex. He is going to study chemical engineering.

Check with the school for their requirements.I bought my daughter a Pro only to find out UVA's Engineering schools specifically refuse to support Apple computers