Hi, Is there a certain laptop we should purchase for son who is attending in the fall? He will be a physics major with Astrophysics goal. He is not a big fan of apple. He want to go for intel i7 + NVIDIA graphics card. I find there are theft risk at colleges for laptops/electronics. I am concerned of bringing high end laptop with graphics into the mix may distract from academics and glue to video gaming.
Your son’s school may have a list of “recommended” computers, you may want to check that out. However in general, and modern computer with a decent processor (i5+) and RAM (4gb+) should be absolutely fine for his schoolwork.
While I’ve never experienced it firsthand, theft can be a problem at some schools. Apart from constant vigelence you can invest in a laptop lock or a second, cheaper machine (Chromebook, tablet) for portable work (notetaking mainly) while the more expensive machine stays in his locked room.
The risk of being distracted by a gaming laptop is very real, especially for a freshman. I personally know students whose grades have suffered due in no small part to gaming. However a lot of it depends on your son’s work ethic and willpower. Is he the type of person to get his work done independently or do you have to constantly remind him? Is he able to resist temptations or do you find him gaming/messing around when he should be working? Maybe you buy him the gaming aptop but with the condition that it goes away if his GPA drops below a certain level. You know him best.