<p>I'm trying to understand what incoming freshman (my son) should do for a laptop. My impression at most colleges we looked at was that if you buy the overpriced laptop from the school, there was some preferential pricing or free service from the college IT shop. It seems to me that at ND, the service is fee-based no matter if you buy from them or on your own. Yet their service expertise is with certain vendors; e.g. Lenova, Dell etc.</p>
<p>Is this understanding correct and therefore you can buy wherever the price is best? And is there a minimum specifications listing of what each unit should include?</p>
<p>Very off-base. ND OIT will fix your computer, regardless of make, model, price, where you bought it, anything, if they are capable. If not, they will tell you who and where to send it in order to fix it. You pay for the OIT service in your tuition, they have no right to refuse you service for any reason other than sheer inability.</p>
<p>ND has an agreement with Apple, Lenovo, and Dell for discounted computers. But this does not mean they serve these exclusively. </p>
<p>Keep in mind these are minimums. You can never have too much RAM or hard drive space. Also, I highly recommend an external hard drive at least 100 gb to back up your files and everything you need.</p>
<p>I recommend a Mac. Strongly. Unless you kid intends on being an engineer, in which case it requires a more in depth debate. I know many engineers who have Macs, and although there are some issues, they are almost always able to work around it. In other majors, Macs make much more impressive multimedia presentations, and they're much more stable.</p>
<p>Last but not least: don't get Vista. Under any circumstances. It is incredibly buggy, unreliable, and extremely difficult to fix due to its arbitrary nature. If you do (mistakenly) decide on a Windows machine, you're better off getting XP.</p>
<p>haha justbumming, dont think uve necessarily lost me. it just seemed more practical for these 4 years as a business major, but i definitely dont think the mac thing will last forever haha</p>
<p>It all depends on if you think you need a new computer. If you're old one is working fine for you, I don't see a problem. The only reason I got a Mac for college is that my old laptop (a PC) was entirely broken down after 4 years of heavy use.</p>
<p>But if you already have a laptop running Vista, that means it's relatively new, and probably still works as well as a computer running Vista can be expected to run. Laptops, like all electronics, eventually just stop working as well as they used to, while programs get faster and demand more processing speed. If you feel left back, get a new computer. If not, stick with the one you have. </p>
<p>That being said. Get the Mac. MBPs are awesome.</p>
<p>According to our student, if you are remotely interested in science/engineering, Vista is not the way to go. Windows XP instead. He has just purchased a new laptop to use beginning this fall-jr year, and he bought a PC. Most engineering/science majors have PC. Hope that helps!</p>
<p>Ordered the MacBook. My 14 yr old dyslexic computer wiz has one too, and the projects he is able to produce are awesome! The free printer and Ipod were a nice addition to the total package. Figure can't really go too wrong. No problems with Apple service either.</p>
<p>The free iPod offer from Apple is pretty enticing. I highly recommend students get the iPod Touch if they choose to buy an Apple. The Nano is a fine music player but the iPod Touch is a music and productivity powerhouse. It will soon have word and powerpoint capabilities (via an update) and Apple's app store will provide iPod touch and iPhone users access to thousands of apps designed for both work and play. The WiFi card in the iPod Touch is also a plus as WiFi covers the entire campus. You can be practically anywhere on campus and check your e-mail with this thing. It's pretty cool. I can't say enough about Apple's products. They are expensive but the product is top quality.</p>
<p>i got office for mac and it seems perfect. i actually posted the same question and most seemed to prefer office for mac more and i have to say its a good choice</p>
<p>get it through ND though, its only 45 dollars there!</p>
<p>iWork. I had never even heard of it until I went into the Apple Store to buy my laptop, but it's amazing. I had planned to also buy Office when I got to ND, but it would be a waste of $45.</p>