<p>What's the deal with purchasing computers once you have been admitted? Should we wait and buy them through the school or can we buy them separately? </p>
<p>Also, is there any disadvantage to having a mac rather than a pc?</p>
<p>There's no disadvantage to having a Mac here - As long as you have the Microsoft Office suite, you'll be set. Once you're admitted, you can take advantage of Apple's Education discount, which can be pretty nice ( <a href="http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html%5B/url%5D">http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html</a> ). I think you can actually lake advantage of the discounts as a HS student, as well.</p>
<p>I wouldn't get it through the school - not because there's anything wrong with it - but there are so many sales at the local stores, I think you'd get a better deal there.</p>
<p>What major (or school) are you looking at? I don't know much about how compatible the necessary programs are with macs, but office alone won't get you anywhere in eng. For artsci, etc, it probably doesn't matter.</p>
<p>I'm going to be in artsci, so I don't think I would need much more than Microsoft office. </p>
<p>Is there some kind of special warrenty if you are to buy it through the school?</p>
<p>I'm a 2004 graduate and a former Residential Computing Consultant. That means I fixed computers for those who lived in my dormitory. Despite what they might want to tell you, there is no homogeneous computer recommendation, etc. The engineering school curriculum needs no more computing horsepower than the average ArtSci or B-School course. Mac computers are just as well supported as Windows computer in terms of networking in the dormitories. School-specific applications are not an issue because there are labs loaded with specific software for your major - you need not buy ridiculous licenses for expensive educational software. That's what you're paying tuition for!</p>
<p>The only recommendation is something that runs either Windows XP Home/Professional or Mac OSX, has WiFi 802.11b or g (as campus is becoming wireless-enabled), and lastly runs Office. For this point, I would wait until you get to school; I would buy Office XP 2003 from the bookstore itself. Microsoft has an agreement with the school (or had) that allows students to pick up Office for around $80, which is about 1/2 what the "Student and Teacher" edition would cost off-the-shelf. If that agreement is no longer in place, then go pick up the "Student and Teacher" at your local Best Buy or Circuit City.</p>
<p>As for computers, I would highly encourage you to check <a href="http://www.edealinfo.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.edealinfo.com</a> for deals on Dells that pop up. A reasonably-equipped Dell 700m or 610m can be had for $700 after rebate. The warranty that comes with your computer is pretty much what you need to rely on in terms of hardware. As for software, you can try to contact the very-busy ResTech offices upon arrival for help. Also, on-campus connections come with Norton Corporate Edition AntiVirus, so you need not buy that yourself.</p>
<p>jdmhsu - do you really know for sure that all programs necessary for engineering can be run on a mac? Although some of the more common ones would be, I've had quite a few more obscure ones, or something written by the professor that I'm not sure would be supported.</p>
<p>"Mac computers are just as well supported as Windows computer in terms of networking in the dormitories."</p>
<p>I only mentioned networking in the dormitories. I had a couple of software programs that I ended up going to the labs for that definitely would not run on a Mac, both for B-School and Engineering.</p>
<p>To clarify, what I was trying to say was that you shouldn't be deterred from having a Mac. Some parents might be under the impression that a Mac simply won't work on the residential network, which isn't true. Individual curriculums may require different software, but I'm pretty sure unique software is always available as a package on a lab machine. At least that was my experience.</p>
<p>Sorry for the confusion.</p>
<p>if your prof. uses windows, and you use mac, then can you email them something like a word document and have it be in a compatible format?</p>
<p>There are generally no compatibility problems between Mac and Windows Office Documents. Aditionally, I'd recommend getting a Mac because almost everyone I know with a Windows machine has gotten some sort of virus at least once.</p>
<p>screw office. pick up OpenOffice for free. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.openoffice.org%5B/url%5D">http://www.openoffice.org</a></p>
<p>
From what I've seen, most obscure programs, or Windows-only engineering programs can be accessed over Remote Desktop to the Engineering server - Microsoft has a version of Remote Desktop for the Macintosh, and it works just as well.</p>
<p>Using a mac on campus will not put you at a disadvantage. If you ever needed to use a Windows computer, there are school-specific computer labs, as well as computer labs in the dorms and the ResTech lobby. If you're in ArtSci, odds are you'll never need to use Windows over a Mac. Word files made on the Mac will work on Windows too. OpenOffice is always an option as well, as those files work cross-platform and work on Microsoft Office too.</p>
<p>very true, the remote desktop connections have made things incredibly convenient</p>