Getting a new MacBook for College?

I have a 2.5 and I’m a professional web designer. It’ll suit you quite well. You might also check out the MacBook air… Those are really nice – solid state drives are fast as lightning and it’s so thin and light. If you need power and speed, go with the pro, if not: go for the air.

Get the Air. Don’t underestimate how much walking you’ll be doing, and how many books you’ll also have to carry, and how much it’ll end up hurting to carry anything more than you have to.

Do you know which college you are going to yet? Check with their admissions office and find out what they prefer you to have.

I know there are some schools that can get very specific about what they want tied to their network.

Once you know what the school’s requirements are we can give you better advice.

The CPU isn’t really that important at this point. Save the cash for more RAM and if you can a SSD. Both will give you greater speed improvements. OS X gobbles up RAM. I wouldn’t really work with less than 8Gigs now.

For the most part there is speed stepping. My cpu will run at 4.21GHz but it normally runs at 1.6GHz.

If the difference is 50 bucks I would get the faster one. If it is 300 I would up the RAM and get a SSD for a boot volume.

I agree with @Aethelflaed. People tend to overestimate how much computing power they actually need and underestimate how annoying it is to carry around a heavier computer. You will not need a MacBook Pro for any of the things you mention, and the likelihood that you will need a Pro for anything else you do in college is extremely low. I have never once regretted buying the standard MacBook rather than the Pro. I have often wished, however, that I could have purchased an Air. Unfortunately, they were brand new at the time and very expensive. Now they are Apple’s entry-level laptop, which is great news for you.

If all your looking at is schoolwork, paperwork, etc, go with the cheapest one.

I have a 13” MacBook Pro, got it in late 2010 (2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM). I’m sure it will last for at least the rest of my college career (2 years left as an undergrad). The 13” screen is plenty big for all my coursework and it’s very portable. The 13” air would be nice (1.5lbs lighter), but I’ve never felt like it was heavy and I like having an optical drive. Even if I don’t use it very often, it’s really convenient when I do need to use it. Every once in a while one of my textbooks will come with a CD, I’ll want to watch a DVD on my comp, or burn a CD, etc.

@Aqua But given the price difference, one could simply purchase an external optical drive and use that when needed. You don’t even need to carry the external drive around: just load the contents of whatever discs you want onto the computer.

@SavoirFaire You’re right, but the 13” Air and 13” MPB are the same prices, and the 13” Air has more battery life than the 11”.

@Aqua Quite right. The price scheme has changed again, and I failed to notice. Overall, though, my preference would still be to purchase the Air and get an external drive. The cost of the drive would be worth the decrease in my ordinary carrying load for me, but perhaps @Nathanael‘s priorities are different.

The Airs and the 13” MacBook Pro all use integrated graphics bolted on to the CPU. That’s fine for most people when it comes to web browsing, email, document editing, etc.

If you expect to require any heavy graphics lifting – photo editing (especially RAW), hardcore gaming, video editing, etc. – then look at getting a Mac with a discrete graphics card.

The Airs are fast, light, and relatively cheap. Definitely a solid choice.

The 13” MBP is okay… but if you’re gonna go “pro”, then I’d opt for the 15”.

Always max out the RAM when you can… and buy it 3rd party to install yourself if you’re comfortable turning a few screws and want to save a few bucks.

Always opt for the SSD if you don’t need the roominess/lower cost of a HDD.

Always buy the AppleCare Extended Service Plan for high-performance devices that travel around with you.

Skip the MBP with Retina Display. It’s so good that it ruined the Internet. Basically, it’s early adopter territory.