<p>^specialized engineering software</p>
<p>Most college students are not engineering students. Even if you ARE an engineering student, you can just run Windows in parallels anyway...</p>
<p>But seriously, the average L&S student will never run into a non-available software issue on a Mac.</p>
<p>It definitely depends on your college. At Princeton, we definitely have just as much software and tech support for macs as for PCs. This may not be true at every university due to agreements and such. </p>
<p>Right now, I have a new desktop with an older laptop (4 yrs). Both are in great condition, and I just transfer whatever it is that I type up on my laptop to my desktop with a flash drive.</p>
<p>Whatever you do..DO NOT get a big laptop (a.k.a desktop replacement notebook). Get the smallest most lightweight laptop that you believe won't fall apart after the first months.</p>