<p>You may not need a desktop at all. I mean, I had one all 4 years, but most of the time I wished I had a laptop.</p>
<p>Laptops are more likely to break given how a college student will use it, though. Get a good warranty :)</p>
<p>^^ very very true. I got my laptop because I wanted something to bring back and forth to class but eventually through the abuse it suffered the screen broke. Now it's working as a desktop but I don't really like it. So I suggest getting a laptop with a good warranty. That way, if something happens to the screen which will likely happen you'll still be able to use it as a desktop.</p>
<p>no, you get a good warranty so that when it breaks you send it in and they fix it. that's what a warranty is for.</p>
<p>obviously the best of both worlds is to have both - a desktop you use as a home base, and a laptop which only has the basic things you need for class on it, plus maybe some games and chat apps or something. If you can do that, go cheap on the laptop, since it won't be your main computing device. You can get a laptop sufficient for student needs for $300 if you go with Pricewatch, Craigslist or Ebay.</p>
<p>Ah, enter Denzera. As usual, crisp and to the point. I don't mind spending the money. So, if one can have one laptop and no desktop, and money really no object, within limits of course, any recommendations? I will make sure re the warranty.</p>
<p>Also, since I have you here Mr. Denzera, and I am sure you have answered this somewhere, but help me with this: if a student is unsure of what engineering he wants to major in, would it be a good idea to do applied math/applied physics, etc as a foundation for a future graduate engineering program? I know of some many people from my erstwhile country India, who went into engineering early and regretted it all their life. So, I am trying to help my son decide. Maybe there is another way to decided on majors. Does SEAS offer seminars, workshops etc other than the first year tryout intro to engineering courses? Sorry to post 2 different queries here.</p>
<p>I'd suggest a laptop from IBM/Lenovo. They tend to be very rugged and sturdy, and are lighter and have longer batter life than the laptops that Dell tends to sell.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Shraf, thanks again. Let me summarize what I understand you wrote: it will be very inconvenient without any computer; first 2 yrs no need for heavy computing power, hence perhaps no need for desktop. So, to start with, a laptop? Later a desktop. Right?
[/quote]
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<p>that was skraylor not me :) ...gotta give credit where credit is due....but i agree with him for the most part. The only thing i might disagree with is how good Gateway is....Gateway used to be a low end computer manufacturer and has only recently ventured into high end computing so i'm not sure how much i would trust one of their machines. I also used to have a hatred for macs but that ended with the introduction of the new intel chips where you can now use windows on your mac along with mac OS....what more can you ask for...not to mention they are very well built. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Does SEAS offer seminars, workshops etc other than the first year tryout intro to engineering courses?
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<p>there are first year "pre-professional" classes for almost every department but it would be hard to take more than two of them....usually people only take one......the best way to go about it though is to take narrow it down to two majors, take the course for one and then decide from there.</p>
<p>As for laptops, I'd second the recommendation for IBM/Lenovo thinkpads. They're bought in huge quantities by businesses, so they've been battle-tested, there are many used ones hitting the secondary market, and there's a big knowledge base out there about them.</p>
<p>Don't buy Dell laptops, everyone I know with them has some sort of hardware problem. but Dell desktops are really good, I have one myself and it's given me ZERO trouble (average uptime: 2 months between reboots).</p>
<hr>
<p>As for classes and majors, applied math/physics is OK if you're already good at one of those. the SEAS major for people who don't know what they want to do, though, is either Mechanical, or something in the IEOR department. Operations Research is pretty cross-applicable and not that rigorous by comparison to some majors.</p>
<p>Your son should use the advising resources available at columbia, talk to the major advisors within departments, take a bunch of electives in places he might be interested, and (especially) seek out professors who are doing interesting research and possibly join them. that's a big help to seeing if you want to pursue something seriously - see what the actual leaders in the field are doing when they get down to it, and see what gets him excited.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Your son should use the advising resources available at columbia, talk to the major advisors within departments, take a bunch of electives in places he might be interested, and (especially) seek out professors who are doing interesting research and possibly join them. that's a big help to seeing if you want to pursue something seriously - see what the actual leaders in the field are doing when they get down to it, and see what gets him excited.
[/quote]
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<p>this isnt exactly applicable to some of the more intensive and less lenient majors (like BME and ChemE)....while its not a good idea to get stuck in a major you dont like its also a bad idea to be playing catch-up because it took you a lot longer to decide on a major....and the easiest way to fall behind is to take extra unnecessary classes.</p>
<p>yeah, if he thinks BME or ChemE are on his short list, he'd do better to start off looking towards them and then switch out, it's tougher to get on that track with a late start.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if any other majors are like that besides those two, though. MechE, EE, CS, APAM, IEOR, Enviro E, Civil, most of those you can decide on late sophomore year and be OK.</p>
<p>edit: but we're off-topic here. make a new thread if you want more on this, ramaswami.</p>
<p>Sorry, Skraylor, thanks. My S decided to have the best of both worlds, is buying a desktop and an IBM/Lenovo laptop. Off topic, briefly, he is sure he doesn't want to study ChemE, BioMed, EnvironE, Civil. Has to decide probably between EE and ME, is pretty sure no CE/CS. He found CS at Cornell Summer tedious. I have told him that I think higher end CS may be interesting but suggested what Denzera has seconded: use campus advising.</p>
<p>I am grateful to all of you. My S should be exploring all this, I am slowly, SLOWLY giving up my helicopter parenting, hard to undo years of habit. I am surprised he got into a bunch of Ivies, zero initiative, lives in his head, superb student, I don't see an engineer in the making, hands-on stuff he is not too keen on, maybe will make an ivory tower economist and ruin the economy. So, off topic, again, what can a student like this amount to, besides living off his parents?</p>
<p>again, we should make a new thread, but...</p>
<p>I was roughly the same way. I'm not very hands-on, so traditional engineering wasn't for me, which left APAM, CS, and IEOR. I didn't have all that much initiative, but had kinda been pushed into having a little by virtue of getting a job in between HS and college. I started out thinking i'd do physics, but the first quantum mechanics course i took (PHYS 2601) was an absolute ball-buster and I decided I wasn't smart enough. I also decided I didn't want to be typecast as a Compsci guy, so I ended up opting for applied math. I probably would've been happier (but less challenged) doing OR. I minored in CS as a side interest mostly to make myself employable with tech roles as a fallback. As it happened, I ended up in management consulting for a year (pays well for very smart people), worked for some startups, and then got a role in private equity after realizing that finance wasn't as boring as I had thought it was in college.</p>
<p>At the very least he should explore APAM (either the physics or the math) and IEOR (operations research, financial engineering, or the true cop-out major of SEAS, Engineering Management Systems, which is essentially pre-business).</p>
<p>I hope he's reading all this advice we're giving to you. I'd hate to think it was filtered on the way to the recipient.</p>