Which MacBook would be preferred for a College Student?

siena211 wrote:

Hi! I am going into my first year in college and I am curious about which MacBook Air is preferred, the M1 or the M2 for a business major?

if budget permits go for M2. No reason to pick the older model if you can get the newer one.

Also, make sure you get as much RAM and storage as budget allows, as it cannot be upgraded after purchase.

Would others recommend the MacBook Pro?

Again, if budget allows, sure. Unless you plan on doing ton of video rendering in 4k Pro Res. You probably don’t need the extra horse power.

Also, are there any Student Discounts that Apple offers?

Yes. Check the Education Store for discounts. Click here ➡️ Back to School - Student Discounts - Education - Apple

You’ll want to buy from the education store apple.com/education for college student discounts and deals. As for the computer… it’s probably something you’ll use for all 4 years. Get a solid mid-range MacBook of some kind. It’s hard to know specifics until you start taking classes. I used a MacBook Pro with the lower end of Ram and higher end of storage and it served me well for a solid 8 years (college, grad school, and into my first job).

Contact the school and ask them for their recommendation for a computer for your course of study. Courses have specific software requirements and it would be bad if you got a computer that will not run the required software. And you need to be 100% compatible with instructors and other students, especially for group projects.

siena211 Said:

"Which MacBook would be preferred for a College Student?"

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Finding the Correct Mac for College:

Ask the Registrar or your Academic Administrator which they recommend on their end.

I would second the recommendation to ask your college for advice, but here's a little information on the choices.

Apple Silicon laptops fall into two basic groups:

13" and 15" MacBook Airs – and 13" MacBook Pros – have two USB4 (Thunderbolt 3) ports and can drive a single external monitor. You can order more RAM on the M2 models than on the M1 models (24 GB vs. 16 GB) – and the M2 MacBook Airs have a useful MagSafe 3 charging port which the 13" MacBook Pros lack.

14" and 16" MacBook Pros have higher-end (M1/M2) (Pro/Max) processors. You can get them with up to 32 GB – 96 GB of RAM (the maximum amount depends on the processor). They can drive two or more external monitors. They have three USB4 (Thunderbolt 4) ports, a SDXC card slot, a HDMI port, and miniLED-backlit screens.

Weight varies from about 2.7 pounds (for the 13" MacBook Airs) to 4.8 pounds (for 16" MacBook Pros that have Max chips), so if you're going to be lugging around a laptop all day, you may want to take that into consideration.

Ask your college. My grand son's engineering school recommended a Windows unit with certain specs. For Windows, the college supplied required software via multiuser licenses.

He could have used a Mac, but he'd have to have bought the rather expensive himself, there would be no tech support from the school, no guarantees the software would work as needed and no school provided training.

Whats the prices on those