<p>I'm committed to USC in the fall (Fight On!) and will be studying aerospace engineering. My parents and I are just wondering about laptop choice, specifically Mac vs. PC. My first choice is a mac, but for those of you recently through or still in engineering school, what are your experiences? Will most engineering programs run on both PC and Mac or is PC still more common among engineering majors? I just want to make sure that when I spend a bunch of money on a laptop it will run all the software that I need for school.</p>
<p>Talked to my current engineer. He thinks PC is better because most of the sw (like simulation sw in aerospace) was originally designed for the windows platform. It will work with mac but a lot of the engineering stuff was originally designed for windows. Of course, some use macs, this is his preference. Also he has a laptop and his desktop at school - likes the power and the giant monitor to work with some projects and of course being an engineer they like to take it apart and pimp it out. I see purchases on my credit card from Amazon or other geek type online stores for drives, connectors, cables…don’t have to take both, but after you get there you may find you would like to have a more powerful system and keep your laptop on the lighter side to take to class.</p>
<p>Costco online sometimes has great pricing on laptops with tons of memory fyi. Or if buying elsewhere like a Microsoft or Apple (if you go mac) store, don’t forget to ask for student discount.</p>
<p>I used to despise Macs, but now they’re my go to and I’m a CS student. You can’t go wrong with a PC: powerful and cheap. But if your preference is a Mac and you’re prepared to pay the premium than go for it. Getting a good one now should last all 4 years, and you can always run Windows via Parallels or Boot Camp w/little to no performance cost. Running OS X on a PC is never as good (& violates TOS), though I doubt there’s Mac-only apps required for Aerospace.</p>
<p>Our S (USC BEE) had a heavy top of the line PC laptop. It died after 2.5 years. He replaced with Asus netbook and PC desktop with multiple monitors. Our family heavily favors PCs. His Game design engineering room mate also had PC desktop. </p>
<p>Officially, I believe Viterbi is ok with whatever students prefer. S has always favored PCs and the only iProduct he owns is iPhone. The rest are PC. </p>
<p>Thanks for the input everyone! I did check on the Viterbi site and it showed a few contacts that have student pricing deals…I’m leaning more towards a PC currently and I think for engineering especially it might just be easier with regards to compatibility. As far as OS, would you all recommend Windows 7? I’ve heard some not so great things about 8 and I like a more typical interface.</p>
<p>I would go with Windows 7 definitely. Unless you’re getting a laptop with a touchscreen or a convertible laptop/tablet I think you’ll find Windows 8 frustrating.</p>
<p>You can get whatever type of computer you like for engineering. If you ever need a specific piece of software that is platform specific, you can always use a lab computer (which are available 24 hours a day), dual boot your machine or use a virtual machine. Professors will always make sure that you have the technology you need for your assignments. There is really no advantage to having a Mac or PC so get whatever you are more comfortable with. </p>