<p>I'm an incoming freshman and am almost positive that I am going to concentrate in Chemical Engineering. Thus, I will be taking a large multitude of science and math courses. Is the X61 a good choice for engineers? And is there any GOOD math recognition software out there that could make tablet computing easier in heavily math-based classes?</p>
<p>Get the engineering option with your laptop - it comes with a great program bundle for science/math students, all free. Just check the box when you order your laptop with the school. You get Mathematica & MatLab, among others, FREE!!!</p>
<p>I personally opted not to get the tablet, and to get the best laptop available (I'm EEB, but on the quantitative side.)</p>
<p>I'm a junior chemical engineer and you really don't need any special software on your computer, if you buy special stuff, honestly, you will never use it. The only thing you might need is Matlab for MAE 305, but even that the university has a free download on a website. Don't waste your money on anything else! A good old TI-83 goes a long way. Really, almost everything you need to can be done on Excel or Matlab.</p>