<p>^^ Look, let’s come at this another way. Your parents can afford this, right? Make sure they understand that when you get an Undergraduate Research Opportunity (UROP) at MIT, you may very well need to download and install entire new software programs, massive files of data, and so on. You’ll have to do this in many of the courses you take. You are going to need a computer with a lot of memory. Somewhere on the MIT website are recommendations for computers; perhaps you could print up that page and share it with your parents. Scientists, economists, architects, and engineers need serious computing power, and you have just been admitted to a community full of budding scientists, economists, engineers, architects, etc. Even as an artist at MIT, you would need some serious animation and computer grahics software. Explain this clearly! I’m a parent, and I’m pretty sure that once they get the picture, you’ll get a green light for an adequate computer.
:-)</p>