<p>Alright well I'm a freshman in the CoE and I'm thinking about just going out and buying MATLAB and Mathematica. Do you recommend just purchasing these products; will they be used in the future quite a bit, or no? Also, is the computer showcase the cheapest place to pick these up? I don't really want to spend $72 on both these programs.</p>
<p>You don’t really need to buy them. You can use them on University computers, or go to [ITCS</a> Virtual Sites](<a href=“http://virtualsites.umich.edu%5DITCS”>http://virtualsites.umich.edu) and use remote desktop connection to connect to a university computer.</p>
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<p>This is actually a stunningly good deal compared to how much this type of software goes retail (think 4 digits minimum) …</p>
<p>Buy them if you’re interested in playing around at home and think you’ll keep using the software later on, past school. Otherwise, just use the university machines.</p>