I currently do not own a laptop and plan on getting one for college. I’m wondering if it’s better to get it some place near Tufts or if I can just get it where my family always gets their computers/online. On a side note, I attended Jumbo Days and it seemed every student I saw had a mac, which I don’t plan to get. Should I take that as a sign it’s students choice? Or is there a place you buy from that will take care of it breaking down/have whatever school programs are needed, etc. as I know some schools do?
I could be wrong but I think it’s rare for stores selling non-Mac laptops to offer service plans so it shouldn’t really matter where you buy your laptop. It looks like IT makes some recommendations, though - https://it.tufts.edu/qs-studentrecommend
I think in 2017 pretty much any laptop you can buy should be sufficient for anything you need to do unless you’re an engineer (or in another program that requires special software) and/or are into computer games. When I was at Tufts (graduated 5 years ago) there were plenty of people around without Macs (I was one of them). I personally still would not buy a Mac laptop.
Get your computer where you want, and get what you want. My daughter has a Mac at Tufts because she learned on a Mac at school, her first laptop was a Mac, etc., so she favors them and probably wouldn’t consider a PC. One of the advantages of an Apple is that there’s Apple stores in Cambridge and Boston, where she can hit up the Genius Bar (often free of charge) if something goes wrong. As a long time PC (Dell) user, I can vouch for the horrible customer service at Dell, and think other PC brands are no better in that area.