<p>We received email this morning from the COE that there is going to be a Twitter chat April 29 on the BYOD issue: Here is the contents:</p>
<p>Howdy!</p>
<p>Congratulations on your acceptance to the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M University! We look forward to seeing you at your New Student Conference in the summer.</p>
<p>We are sending this email to extend a personal invitation to participate in a Twitter chat, as one way to get some of your questions answered. Staff from Engineering Academic and Student Affairs will be available Tuesday, April 29, from 4 to 5 p.m. CST for the Twitter chat. Please follow the #LookChat and tweet us your questions. </p>
<p>For this #LookChat we will be focusing on our computer recommendations (aka BYOD) for students in the college of engineering. Students new to the Look College are required to purchase a preconfigured device designated by the college. As the Look College transitions to implement this new policy, students entering in Fall 2014, who have already purchased a device for college, may use the device to satisfy this requirement. If you have yet to purchase a computer, visit our website to view the two configurations the Look College recommends engineering.tamu.edu/easa/byod.</p>
<p>You can also e-mail us at <a href=“mailto:easa@tamu.edu”>easa@tamu.edu</a>, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter, where you’re always welcome to contact us.</p>
<p>We hope you’ll join us on Twitter on Tuesday, April 29!</p>
<p>Thank you,
Dr. Valerie Taylor
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs</p>
<p>They said so themselves that you’d have to download the software during sessions on their page.
“Upon the start of classes, student will attend sessions to download the needed software for their classes. This software includes Microsoft Office, LabView, Matlab, and the GNU C++ Compiler. It is for this reason that the recommended systems do not include software bundles, beyond the operating system.”</p>
<p>It’s all so subjective and personal preference, I know. But, we were just in the Apple Store here in Plano and compared the size and weight (and cost!) of the 13" vs. 15". The 13" is lighter, cheaper, would appear to be easier to carry around and handle, and surprisingly not that “smaller” than the 15". To each his own, but 13" will work just fine (not to mention, you could always bring a larger sized monitor for the dorm room to dock to when you may want or need a larger screen).</p>
<p>The 13" also has a dual core I5 whereas the 15" has a quadcore I7. That is much of the price difference. We are still debating between several models.</p>
<p>I do find it interesting that BOYD page has an I7 Dell and only an I5 Apple. I would have expected them to be basically the same. Judging from that I would assume an I5 would be suitable for the 4 years of engineering.</p>
<p>Wow, this is really a surprise! My older son is in ChemEngr (graduating in Dec). Just like aGGieENGINeeR, he used a $500 laptop that he bought when he was a junior in high school. He always said it was more than capable and didn’t ever ask for a new one. </p>
<p>S2 is a sophomore transferring into CompEngr at CS in the fall. I was planning to buy him a new laptop, but definitely wasn’t planning on paying $1500!</p>
<p>I agree with AllThisisNewToMe. We bought our S a new laptop just before his senior year of high school. Its more than capable of handling any software they require, but it not the “required setup”. These days, its cheaper to buy a new laptop than buy the expensive warranty that is included on the BYOD list. </p>
<p>We are quite confused about the “required” wording, because it also says if you have a laptop you can use it. What??? If anyone gets more clarity on this BYOD please share it here. We too did not budget a $1500+ laptop on top of all the other tuition, fees, books, supplies and room & board. </p>
<p>“Students new to the Look College are required to purchase a preconfigured device designated by the college. As the Look College transitions to implement this new policy, students entering in Fall 2014, who have already purchased a device for college, may use the device to satisfy this requirement. If you have yet to purchase a computer, the Look College recommends the purchase of one of two configurations described below.”</p>
<p>They start off saying “required” and in the same paragraph end it with saying “recommends”. </p>
<p>Where are we supposed to be able to purchase these computers at their “negotiated price”? Neither Best Buy nor the Apple store offers that price for the package INCLUDING a 4-year protection package. The Apple rep at our Best Buy said it must be something A&M arranged directly with Apple. (We are planning to get a MacBook)</p>
<p>The Mac comes from the local A&M Apple dealer called Mac-Resource. You probably won’t be able to get the same deal with the protection package anywhere else. It is a special that is offered by university resellers. We experienced the same thing at another university my daughter attends. The best deal and support was from the local bookstore.</p>
<p>If you click on the MacBook link on the BYOD page it will take you to the Mac-Resource website.</p>
<p>Thanks, TexasAtHome and kidat1! TexasAtHome, it looks like you can purchase the versions with more memory as College of Engineering Upgrade Package ($300 extra for an addition 256GB). </p>
<p>@divensnorkel Can you please tell me how you got to the $300 extra for the the additional 256 GB. I must be blind or just missing something. Thanks.</p>
<p>They also just added some additional wording to the BYOD page. “Beginning Spring 2015, undergraduate students entering the Look College will be required to follow the BYOD policy of purchasing one of the preconfigured devices designated by the Look College. No student will be denied admission to Texas A&M University based on an inability to purchase a computer.” So, its says only those “ENTERING” in Spring are “REQUIRED”. </p>
<p>Does that mean if you start using your current laptop in the Fall that you can continue using it??? My S is entering the engineering program in the Fall. In Spring, he will be a continuing student.</p>
<p>@kldat1 Thanks. I see that. I just was wondering if there was a way to add more memory and @divensnorkel mentioned an upgrade with more memory. We are debating whether to buy through school or other vendor, too. 8GB memory is low end for what we like.</p>
<p>The upgraded 13" on the website bumps it up to 512GB PCIe-based flash storage, but it is still just 8GB of SDRAM. It’s a shame that none of the options have more than 8GB of RAM on any of their packages. I would rather pay to upgrade to 16GB on the SDRAM and use additional external storage than to increase the flash storage (what I was originally referring to as memory). </p>
<p>I emailed the A&M Mac store directly and here was their response:</p>
<p>"We can certainly upgrade the memory to 16GB. That is considered a custom configured computer and would have to order it from Apple. If ordered, it will take about 7-12 business days, on average, to come in. The cost of the upgrade, for any of the engineering bundles, would be $180 in addition to the cost of the bundle. </p>
<p>If you have any other questions, our MSC staff is on stand by to answer any inquiries. Feel free to contact us at <a href="mailto:msc@mac-resource.com">msc@mac-resource.com</a> or 979-314-0537"</p>