Macbook Air is good for basics. Macbook Pro is much better overall.

Anonymous wrote:What major?

Anything in the arts or humanities, Mac is fine.
Business programs may require a windows based PC
Most engineering or computer science programs, and some life or physical science programs require a PC.

Undecided at this point but pretty sure it will be in the arts/humanities area.

What major?

Anything in the arts or humanities, Mac is fine.
Business programs may require a windows based PC
Most engineering or computer science programs, and some life or physical science programs require a PC.

+1000 for the Macbrook Pro. There's data crunching in even the humanities fields now. Protect it with one of the heavy duty covers that help with dropping accidents. You'll be wasting money on an underpowered machine now.

Celebrate and go with him to buy it.

My spouse is a computer scientist and uses a MacBook Pro for periodic telework. If you have a computer scientist at home, he made it into part Mac, part Linux machine. For comparison, for much of the work he does it is faster and more powerful for some jobs than what he has access to at work, which is saying a lot as he has excellent resources at work. I telework as well and use his old MacBook Pro, which is now 7 years old and still going strong. We've had one $200 repair during that time. There is some other special sauce to what you order, having to do with memory and something else that affects power/speed (I apologize if I'm not using the correct terminology), and I think you have to decide on all of this at the time of purchase. Of course, more memory and power/speed costs more, but can be really important depending on what you will use it for. Especially the memory.

Agree with others that the MacBook Air seems like a great starting point for some situations, and is so light. But depending on your college major or your uses, it may not meet your needs. And light = more delicate, which is generally not a good thing on a college campus.

^^ Or The Macbook, I'm considering this one as well.

Anonymous wrote:so my kids are in high school and they had to buy a computer in order for us to be accepted at the school.

If your college student is going to shlep it around from class to class, The MacBook is great.

This is just called "The MacBook"---NOT The Macbook Air or The Macbook Pro

It's a little smaller and lighter (I think it has an 11 inch screen). Really nice; we've had them 3 years.

With whichever mac you get, get the AppleCare! (the extended warranty or whatever it is, that you can only buy at the time of purchase.)

OP here, thanks for pointing this out. I wasn't sure if people were referring to the Air or Pro when they just said MacBook, now I know it's neither, it's a whole other product.

Thank you to everyone that has responded, this has been incredibly helpful. Still not sure if I should get the Air or the Pro but this thread has given me lots of things to consider.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would do a MacBook Pro vs an Air. The Pro will get him through 4 years of college.

Definitely Macbook Pro for college, I have used both Macbook Pro and Macbook Air at work and definitely Macbook Pro handles number-crunching and large files much better. We bought DD a Macbook Pro for college due to this experience. Going strong after 3 years.

+1 MacBook Pro. I went to undergrad with a PowerBook (precursor to the Pro), grad school with a Pro, and have worked on a variety of Mac laptops since starting my career. The Air is underpowered and doesn’t handle the large files as well. It is also more delicate. It is fine if it sits on your desk and never goes in backpacks across campus, but that’s not practical for a college student. I broke 2 in 6 months traveling for work, so they gave me another Pro 2.5 years ago and no issues.

so my kids are in high school and they had to buy a computer in order for us to be accepted at the school.

If your college student is going to shlep it around from class to class, The MacBook is great.

This is just called "The MacBook"---NOT The Macbook Air or The Macbook Pro

It's a little smaller and lighter (I think it has an 11 inch screen). Really nice; we've had them 3 years.

With whichever mac you get, get the AppleCare! (the extended warranty or whatever it is, that you can only buy at the time of purchase.)

Anonymous wrote:I would do a MacBook Pro vs an Air. The Pro will get him through 4 years of college.

Definitely Macbook Pro for college, I have used both Macbook Pro and Macbook Air at work and definitely Macbook Pro handles number-crunching and large files much better. We bought DD a Macbook Pro for college due to this experience. Going strong after 3 years.

Anonymous wrote:When you say senior, do you mean is currently a senior and will be going to college this fall? Or will be a rising senior this fall?

Either way, I'd wait. My kid, who isn't in any kind of Engineering or Graphics program, even has requirements for her laptop for the university she'll be attending this fall. Not only that, it can ONLY be purchased through the University. Plus she's also required to have an iPad Pro + Apple Pencil, which also must be purchased through the school.

There were a lot of frustrated parents at the local social we attended a few weeks ago. Some had just purchased new laptops for their kids at the start of their senior HS years. Many were peeved about the whole iPad Pro + Apple Pencil thing since almost all there had iPads of their own, but couldn't use them according to the university.

We bought DD a new laptop at the start of her 10th grade year and she's been babying it to make it last through this year as we knew from experience with cousins that every university/program had its own laptop requirements. Having to buy through this is a new one, though.

Current senior, going to college this fall.

I love my air, but I would get MacBook Pro if I was going into college.

When you say senior, do you mean is currently a senior and will be going to college this fall? Or will be a rising senior this fall?

Either way, I'd wait. My kid, who isn't in any kind of Engineering or Graphics program, even has requirements for her laptop for the university she'll be attending this fall. Not only that, it can ONLY be purchased through the University. Plus she's also required to have an iPad Pro + Apple Pencil, which also must be purchased through the school.

There were a lot of frustrated parents at the local social we attended a few weeks ago. Some had just purchased new laptops for their kids at the start of their senior HS years. Many were peeved about the whole iPad Pro + Apple Pencil thing since almost all there had iPads of their own, but couldn't use them according to the university.

We bought DD a new laptop at the start of her 10th grade year and she's been babying it to make it last through this year as we knew from experience with cousins that every university/program had its own laptop requirements. Having to buy through this is a new one, though.

My mid-2013 mac book air is still going strong; no issues at all. I use it for novel writing and photography.