<p>My D will be an incoming Freshman majoring in Behavioral Neuro. I am wondering if anyone knows if she will need anything special in the way of a computer? Emily2007- aren't you BNS? Did you? I assume we have to wait for verification at orientation. Any thoughts out there?</p>
<p>I started as Chemistry, so I presume it’s the same (although totally wait for Emily to respond- you can send her a pm as well).</p>
<p>They have the official recommended specs somewhere on the Northeastern website, but honestly there isn’t anything different for science-type majors. Engineering maaaay be different, and I know CS has a slew of things they want based on the type of major you want (multimedia versus information science). But for the sciences, you pretty much just need the Internet, Excel and Word so that you can type your lab reports and look up stuff you don’t know.</p>
<p>If you are buying a brand new computer, I do want to share this tidbit of advice. Although it seems obvious, battery life is (to me) the most important thing about my laptop. Almost every person I know has a laptop that will last maybe 30 to 60 minutes before they die, and several only last 15 minutes (no one knows why). I know my original laptop advertised 3 hours, and it lasted about 1.5 hours on a typical day. But then I got my current one (sister got the old one) and it’s some eco-friendly thing that advertised 8 hours of battery. While it’s not that much, I can definitely do 6 hours on it so long as I’m not playing videos. In my opinion, getting fancy features isn’t that important compared to not having to drag around a power cord all the time and constantly search classrooms for plugs.</p>
<p>Don’t need any specific computer for BNS, there won’t be any point where one computer/OS/whatever will give you an advantage/disadvantage when it comes to getting work done. Just need basic word/excel/powerpoint.</p>
<p>Obviously everyone has their biases toward either PC/Mac, but from experience, I can tell you that PC laptops have a lifespan of around 3 years, while Macs last about 5-7 (unless you spill beer on them, as my roommate can attest). I can’t think of any friends who haven’t had to replace their PC at some point during college, while my Mac is still (mostly, it’s from 2006!) plugging along happily. Of course, Macs come with the price tag, and they really aren’t affordable for everyone. But watching my roommates deal with reformatting/viruses and other mini-catastrophes on their 2nd college PC, while my biggest headache was replacing my battery about a year ago… I think the $$ was worth it.</p>
<p>But neuchimie does make a good point about batteries. I think some of the smaller PCs come with awesome battery lives, so that’s worth considering if you’re willing to compromise on screen size.</p>
<p>I’ve always been a PC person, but I’d also point out that I totally wish they had a Dell store with people to tell you what’s wrong with your computer… But my friend in cs/multimedia had to get a fancy Mac and it cost him a crazy amount.</p>
<p>The selling point of Macs is reliability. Generally, they are much safer from virus related information loss/crashing. The hardware inside, however, is usually much less powerful than a comparably priced PC. I like PC’s, and I don’t want to(nor can I) spend $1k+ on a Mac, that’s why I’m most likely getting a Dell, or just upgrading my Toshiba.</p>
<p>Is it possible to use financial aid for a computer purchase?</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. My D is an Apple girls all the way. She has an older Mac Book and before she gets an upgade for graduation I wanted to make sure the one she wants: A 13" Mac Book Pro is OK and that she didn’t need the big one. I hear that getting it thru the bookstore is a good idea. Not sure that is necessarily any cheaper as I was at our local Apple Store last week and they offer a student discount and a cheaper Apple Care plan for students than for the regular population. Any other thoughts there?</p>