Alright guys im looking for your help to settle a dispute with my mother. I told her i want a mac book pro or air for christmas because i prefer to code on one and ive never had problems with apple. Shes telling me i should wait and buy it through the school i decide to attend… Does it really matter if i just get one before? i know how to bootcamp even if i do need windows
In my experience there is no real benefit in buying a computer through the school.
However, other people may have different experiences.
Boot camp is easy. As for buying it through the school, only advantage I see is if it has a discount.
Another advantage may be that some schools offer 4-year warranty and will fix it for you on campus, which may be faster than sending it to the provider, but I’m not sure this would extend to Macs as well because they’re pretty annoying about warranties. Personally, I wouldn’t bother because my school doesn’t sell the brand I like (namely MSI) and I fix my computers anyway. Not to mention I wouldn’t trust a college campus technician to touch my laptop. But that’s just me.
Some really large schools get great discounts from Apple.
The only place I know that it is really worth it to buy the computer from the school is a place like UNC Chapel Hill, which offers students a laptop grant as part of the financial aid package, which would allow you to get a Macbook Pro for like $300. Otherwise It’s probably better that you just get a refurbished or open box 13" Pro Retina ($900-1100), which is a good balance of portability, battery life, resolution and performance.