My son is planning on attending UChicago this autumn. Do kids still need/use desktop computers or are laptops sufficient? Should he get an Apple or does it matter?
I would assume a laptop is sufficient. I don’t have experience with UChicago, but at other colleges, if a desktop is required for a certain program, then there are computers on campus available for use with the program preloaded. I know of one of my classmates that has a laptop in his apartment, but he uses it because it handles his CS work and research much better than a laptop.
As for brand, it’s up to you.
In my experience, most college students use laptops. They enjoy the portability of bringing them to class, etc. My S is a freshman at Chicago and has been happy with a laptop. As the previous poster indicated, Apple vs PC is a personal preference.
Note: in my previous comment, I meant today the CS classmate has a desktop in his apartment, not a laptop.
IMO today’s laptops are powerful enough for college student’s work and projects, etc. Even computer science projects are tend to be small and can be handled by a laptop easily. You can always have option to remotely log onto a server if a need arises. Most of the time students use computer to take class notes, write papers, search internet, or program - not much heavy computing.
The compute power of a laptop should be plenty. He might want to get a keyboard, mouse, and larger monitor, though.