<p>Miami recommends that all business majors get a dell but I really want to get the MacBook Pro. Is this going to be a big problem? Anyone else in the same situation.... or even, anyone in the business school with a Mac?</p>
<p>Also, shouldnt everything be fine once BootCamp is complete?</p>
<p>Please reply, Thanks!</p>
<p>My son is an incoming first-year, majoring in mechanical engineering. The Miami Notebook he bought recently is a 15" Macbook Pro, and he's very happy with it. Before buying it, we talked to 2 employees in the computer sales department at the Shriver bookstore and they both have Macbook Pros, to which they've loaded Apple's "Boot Camp" software so that they can run either Windows Vista or OS X. My son hasn't added Windows Vista to his laptop yet, but probably will.</p>
<p>In theory it should be okay, but if there are any compatibility issues in the future, you probably shouldn't expect much sympathy from professors if you went against your school's recommendations. The stats program that my class used last year did not work well on MacBooks, although I'm not sure if those students had BootCamp loaded. Personally, I would follow the recommendations of the school. The Dells are really nice. However, if you REALLY want a MacBook, then you might as well go for it since you can always borrow a friend's computer or check a laptop out at the library if something doesn't work.</p>
<p>My D has the opposite problem. The arts (including music?) recommend a Mac but we have always had Dells, and that is what my D knows very well. We know nothing about Macs at all. My H gets a lot of free downloads for our computers (such as virus software), and is something of an expert on this type of computer, and it bothers him to send her off with a computer he knows nothing about, and that he may have to spend lots of money on to keep it on par with ours. He is trying to decide if he believes that the MU service will be enough to keep her going. And if the learning curve is worth it.</p>
<p>Also, since the core curriculum requires courses in depts that recommend the Dell, how do they handle the kids who's major required the other?</p>
<p>binx, </p>
<p>The university provides TONS of free downloads (OS patches and upgrades, virus and spyware protection, etc.) for both Macs and PCs. You won't have to spend a cent on any of this. </p>
<p>Since my department has no computer preferences or recommendations, I am afraid I cannot reply to your other concerns. The faculty in my department use both PCs and Macs (as do my students) and we have encountered no real compatibility problems.</p>
<p>Thanks, Prof, that's good to know. I sent an email to the music dept, using the link on the website, but it got caught by spam filters and bounced back. I'm trying again through the dept secretary. </p>
<p>One of H's concerns is that during tax time, there are lots of documents flying back and forth between our kids and us, which my H encrypts for security. We have no clue if either the document itself or the encryption will be able to be opened by the other type of computer. Sorry to sound clueless, but can a Mac open a Word document, for example?</p>
<p>Yes, Macs can open Word documents. The reverse is sometimes more difficult, but it can be done. And encryption is no problem whatsoever.</p>