I’m currently in the 10th grade and I am considering getting a Mac for school. However, I am unsure if I should get one during the holidays, later during high school, or once I start college because I prioritize the best return on investment. Since Macs can get support for around 7 years, I want to consider how valuable it would be for each option.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Mac now or later?
Research is good and you appear to be on track to making it a personal habit. Good for you!
Here are a few things to consider when buying your Mac:
1) Rarely (if ever) does Apple offer substantial discounts such as holiday, back-to-school or otherwise. If you hope to take advantage of those sort of discounts, you'd best be looking at buying your Mac from a third party such as Costco or Amazon. You'll find that these places may offer limited discounts on "last year's" models that get superseded when newer versions are releases. Older models sold as new will have Apple's full warranty and support, though as you note, you may short yourself a year or so in the long run. Apple does offer discounts for educational purchases, so look into that.
2) An option to paying Apple's full retail price on a new Mac is to purchase from the selection of Macs that Apple lists here: Refurbished Mac Deals - Apple
These Macs are refurbished by Apple, are sold with a full manufacturer warranty and will be priced below that of "new" Macs. These offereings may change daily depending on available stock, but you can specify the features (RAM, storage, etc) and usually find something that works for you.
3) Never buy a used Mac from an unknown seller. Purchase only from reputable resellers. OWC/macsales is one example of reputable reseller. The reasons being that a) not all sellers know how to prep a Mac for resale and b.) a Mac that is not properly prepared may easily become an unusable doorstop leaving you stuck with no recourse.
4) While you may wish to buy a Mac now to carry you through to your college career, be cautious. Your chosen major and the related coursework may dictate your personal computer choice, i.e. Mac or PC. Some coursework may require use of software and apps that don't run on one platform or the other. It may be wise to wait until you have made a determination of school and major and then select the computer that will fit best.
As I said, you appear to be on the right track and are headed for success, wherever your path takes you.
🍀
Research is good and you appear to be on track to making it a personal habit. Good for you!
Here are a few things to consider when buying your Mac:
1) Rarely (if ever) does Apple offer substantial discounts such as holiday, back-to-school or otherwise. If you hope to take advantage of those sort of discounts, you'd best be looking at buying your Mac from a third party such as Costco or Amazon. You'll find that these places may offer limited discounts on "last year's" models that get superseded when newer versions are releases. Older models sold as new will have Apple's full warranty and support, though as you note, you may short yourself a year or so in the long run. Apple does offer discounts for educational purchases, so look into that.
2) An option to paying Apple's full retail price on a new Mac is to purchase from the selection of Macs that Apple lists here: Refurbished Mac Deals - Apple
These Macs are refurbished by Apple, are sold with a full manufacturer warranty and will be priced below that of "new" Macs. These offereings may change daily depending on available stock, but you can specify the features (RAM, storage, etc) and usually find something that works for you.
3) Never buy a used Mac from an unknown seller. Purchase only from reputable resellers. OWC/macsales is one example of reputable reseller. The reasons being that a) not all sellers know how to prep a Mac for resale and b.) a Mac that is not properly prepared may easily become an unusable doorstop leaving you stuck with no recourse.
4) While you may wish to buy a Mac now to carry you through to your college career, be cautious. Your chosen major and the related coursework may dictate your personal computer choice, i.e. Mac or PC. Some coursework may require use of software and apps that don't run on one platform or the other. It may be wise to wait until you have made a determination of school and major and then select the computer that will fit best.
As I said, you appear to be on the right track and are headed for success, wherever your path takes you.
🍀
There is no best time. There is no best choice. There are always trade-offs.
Requirements and expectations and plans can and do change. So does the world.
There is always a newer and better model coming out, too.
And a Mac is a tool, and not an investment.
Buy the best (new or used) tool you can afford for the requirements you have, and replace it or trade it if and when it is no longer serviceable.
More generally, some folks have a plan. Some keep those plans. Sometimes not. Some find new paths. Choices made and career paths that worked for older folks quite possibly won’t work for you either, as the world you are in is very different from the world the older folks were in, too. (No offense intended to you, or to the older folks, or to the world for its habit of repeatedly throwing sabots into our best-laid plans.)
All that written, you likely have nearly three years before college. Get what works appropriately for the remainder of high school, whether Mac or iPad or iPhone or otherwise. I’d wait until closer to college to figure out what gear might be appropriate for college. Your selected college curriculum might require, for instance, Windows or Linux.
And yeah, a Mac usually gets five years with updates, maybe longer.
Best time to buy a Mac for high school and college students
