Good/Best laptop for my (possible) major?

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>I am wondering, if I should consider getting a Mac or PC (not HP though). Now, I am leaning towards getting a Mac for a few reasons; I have never owned a Mac before, so I do want to give it a try to see how I like it. I know that one day I will get a Mac regardless of whether or not, I'm in college, but I want to know if a Mac would be a good college laptop. Another reason, I'm leaning towards a Mac is because, I want to know and get used to one, in case for any reason I need to work one a Mac (whether for school or a job), at least I won't be completely clueless. Though, I do wonder if there is a PC out there that would work too, so that's why I added PC to the question.</p>

<p>Now, schoolwise I'm mostly going to be using my laptop for essays, papers, probably powerpoint and possibly photography/some other type of media (if I decide to take/try a class on that). For my own personal use, I'm going to be online a lot (youtube especially, to which I usually run a few tabs on one webpage to watch different things), I'll have iTunes on with all my music, tv shows, etc (which is a lot) and I'll be watching dvds on it. I might play games on it, but I'm not 100% sure on that. And for both school and personal use, I'll be using multiple things at once usually, so something that won't slow down everytime I have to use multiple applications.</p>

<p>I do know that I'm not getting an HP laptop, I've had a couple of them and in the end, both my mother and I decided not to buy an HP anymore (so please don't suggest it). </p>

<p>I am undecided in my major, but, I do know that these are my possible major/double major that I am thinking about. Mainly, I'm looking for a laptop that work alright regardless of what major (or double major)/minor from the below that I choose to do. And possibly something with good battery life, more than 2 hours, like 3 or more would be great. </p>

<h1>Thank you for your help.</h1>

<ul>
<li>Animal Science</li>
<li>Spanish</li>
<li>Intergrated media (Photography and/or Graphic Design)</li>
<li>Forensic Science</li>
<li>environmental engineering</li>
<li><p>Ocean engineering</p></li>
<li><p>Marine Science</p></li>
</ul>

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<p>Since a few choices of major involve graphics work, you’d do well to get dedicated (discrete) graphics. Nvidia Optimus or other Nvidia or ATI’s. Dell XPS, Dell Latitude, Lenovo Ideapad and Thinkpad are good choices. </p>

<p>I’m not a big Dell fan (have a Latitude for occasional work, hate it) or HP (wife’s, ditto). Thinkpads are bland but work well. For serious multitasking, lots of memory and Win7 64 bits (even 8gb) and if money is no object (:-)) an SSD. </p>

<p>My daughter will be attending a Dell-full university with decent deals but as I said, not my cup of tea. She’s likely getting a Thinkpad 420.</p>