<p>Hi. So I need help in finding a good laptop for school. I am going to pursue chemical engineering this September. I need suggestions on a good laptop that will serve me well through school and can take the heavy software that are needed in chemical engineering. My price range is between $0 and $1200.</p>
<p>S is a rising junior in chem eng. Got him a $599 Asus from Best Buy before he started, nothing fancy, and it’s served him just fine. No issues running any software. We just looked at his schools recommended specs for laptops.</p>
<p>My D will be a freshmen this Fall for first year engineering and she plans to major in ChemE. I figured portability, durabiltiy and moderate performance to be important criteria for a laptop for her. I got her a Yoga 13 with i5 and SSD for around $500 from the Lenovo outlet last month. I upgraded it with a second SSD and more RAM. She is very happy with it as it weighs only ~3 pounds and the battery lasts for almost a whole school day.Perhaps because of the SSD, it seems to run even better than my ultrabook with 4-core i7 and more memory.</p>
<p>MacBook Air starting at 899$</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend a macbook, but would recommend something that runs primarily with Windows. I’m going into my third engineering year now and I’m finding I have to spend extra time looking for computer programs that fit into Mac’s system.</p>
<p>Make sure you confer with your school’s I.T. department.</p>
<p>Most engineering departments and schools have a computer lab that has computers/workstations with engineering or design software that your classes use. See how convenient the computer lab is to use (ease of access from dorms, 24 hour access?, etc). If you can use the lab for the homework and projects that require the specialized software, you can use your computer for the basic work that require a work processor or spreadsheet and not have to get as powerful a machine.</p>
<p>My D’s school provides all the necessary software on the server and any computer can do a virtual login anywhere to use the program. Any decent laptop would be fine for that although a more portable and better network performance unit would be more favorable.</p>