<p>I will be studying Economics at Boston University in the fall, and hope to eventually partake in the BA/MA dual degree program. As I've had my MacBook Pro (Early '09) for several years, I am most comfortable with Macs, but really need a new laptop. </p>
<p>I am looking for something light, fast, durable, reliable, and with a great deal of computing power. Quality and reliability are the main objects rather than cost, as I know I will be using the laptop for many years to come. </p>
<p>So far, I have looked at the 13" Macbook Air with 8 GB RAM, 512 GB flash storage, and the 1.7 GHz Intel i7 Dual-Core processor. Would this be suitable? If not, what would you recommend? Also, if I were to stay with a Mac, would you recommend that I install Parallels, and/or any other special software?</p>
<p>For your needs you don’t need the i7, and unless you have a massive media library you don’t need 512GB either. It’s a better idea to get the 256 and with the money you save buy an external hard drive with like 1TB or something.</p>
<p>That Macbook Air would be fine but I don’t think you need the i7, I would go with the i5 personally.</p>
<p>I would recommend either Parallels ($$), Virtual Box (free), or using bootcamp (free), so you have windows available in case you need to use it.</p>
<p>@keepittoyourself: I need a new one because my current MBP can only run one application at a time and constantly freezes such that I need to shut it down several times a day. It works sometimes, but I don’t want to risk having issues with it at college!</p>