<p>My son will be starting Cornell this Fall as a Freshman, studying engineering. He needs a new computer now. What kind of computer (PC or Mac, laptop or desktop) do most engineering students prefer? Is there an advantage to buying the computer at the Cornell Store? I appreciate any comments you may have!</p>
<p>PC/Mac doesn’t matter.
Laptops are probably more convenient.</p>
<p>I’m also interested in people’s opinions on this (I’ll be majoring in computer science in the college of engineering). I’ve been leaning towards the Lenova Thinkpad T430, but it’s just so ugly…Also I’m considering the Samsung Notebook, the HP Pavilion dv7, and the Sony Vaio S Series 15…If anyone knows anything about these laptops or has experience with them, that’d be great (I’m eternally opposed to macs, and I’ve had a bad experience with Dell, so not considering those). </p>
<p>Sorry if that was a bit off-topic, or kind of hijacking your thread, but the Lenova Thinkpad is definitely a good one to look into, and it would be absolutely perfect (for me at least) if it weren’t so physically unattractive. I also don’t know anything about buying through the Cornell store, as I don’t go there yet obviously, but from what I can glean looking through their site it doesn’t seem worth it.</p>
<p>@firecy</p>
<p>Thanks for the input, and you didn’t hijack the thread. I would love to hear more opinions on types of computers, especially as they relate to engineering majors. Currently, our family is split between pc and mac, but my son is open right now.</p>
<p>I think it splits pretty evenly. I think amongst the general population at Cornell there are more Macs, but among engineers, there are more PCs, as there are some software programs, depending on what major you are, that only run on PCs. That said, I also have friends who are engineers who have dual-boot Macs, so they can run Macs and PCs. (A couple people have Linux too!). </p>
<p>I’ve never bought a computer at the Cornell Store, so I can’t comment on that - I think they may have some deals or specials, but I’m pretty sure you can also find similar/better ones outside of Cornell. Someone else may have a better idea though</p>
<p>I’m a CS major and having a Mac has been more convenient for a few things (because Mac is Unix-based), whereas I haven’t encountered anything I need for school that requires Windows yet. I do have a dual boot, though.</p>
<p>Definitely go with a laptop. They are powerful enough now-a-days and the portability will likely be useful. If for some reason the screen is too small for long sessions, you can always buy an external monitor and hook that up to the laptop. Mac vs PC is almost entirely preference based so I’d leave that up to your son. If you decide to go with a Mac, the Cornell Store education discount can save a significant amount of money. Any Apple store offers an education discount that will be similar, but often the Cornell store can be a little cheaper than the standard education discount. You can check store.cornell.edu to see the current prices of their Apple computers and compare that with Apple’s standard education pricing. I don’t think the Cornell Store is necessarily cheaper than anywhere else when it comes to PC’s, but it’s always worth at least browsing the website and comparing.</p>
<p>Thank you gateways, zenzic, and mikeyc. I appreciate your helpful comments.</p>