Hi - has anyone here with a Virginia Tech student purchased a laptop thru Hokie Shop? Seems much more expensive then just getting something at Best Buy. I did some comparison shoping today and found several options that appear to meet the engineering department recommended requirements for under $1500. For example, I can get an HP Envy 16-in touchscreen with an intel core i9 processor, 16 GB of ram, Nvidia GeForce 4060 graphics card and 1 TB SSD storage for $1249. A similarly spec’d laptop from Hokie Shop looks like it would be over $2K.
I know there are some benefits to going with Hokie Shop, just not sure if they are enough to make up for the price difference. Has anyone here been faced with a similar decision?
Part of it’s peace of mind - not a VT parent so it may be different there, but neither of my kids’ schools provided loaners if the computer wasn’t purchased through the school. They are also far from home without cars. My daughter’s laptop died at 3 am and she had a final at 9am the next morning that required a laptop. Especially considering the loaners have all the necessary programs preloaded. Schools all seem to have their own flavor of random programs - it’s definitely not enough to show up with standard programs from Best Buy) -it was worth the upcharge to us.
I should mention that I’m not a VT parent either. I did grossly overbuy my son’s first laptop wanting him to have “the best.” It was a mil spec, Solidworks certified machine that was a tank. when he replaced it on his own, he bought a MacBook Air and has used MacBooks at every job since.
The piece of mind @Darcy123 is referring to has value. Remember it’s a small expense in the big scheme and they will carry it everywhere.
We used Costco for our engineer. Saved a boatload and theyr warranties are better. I would assume most but on their own but you can ask the department.
Whether or not to get it from through the college is up to you. People definitely do both.
My daughter is a finance major at VT. We got her computer through the college store because if it breaks, they can fix it on campus and have a loaner program. We did the same for my older daughter at her university (hers did break and the process to get it fixed and immediately get a loaner was seamless). For us, the peace of mind in not having to worry about them dealing with an off-campus store experience (my VT student has an Apple and the closest Apple store is in Roanoke), wait times to get it fixed and hoping to secure a loaner, was worth the price difference (and in our case, I don’t recall the price difference to have been overly significant).
I’m guessing there’s a Best Buy in Christiansburg - I would check and see what the process is if he needs a repair.
Thanks all. There is a indeed a Best Buy in Christiansburg, about 5 miles away from campus. Going to swing by the Charlottesville Best Buy today to ask about the repair process. But I agree the loaner program if we bought thru VT would be a big value add. I also need to check the price of the extended warranty with the best buy option - with some of the brands available thru VT a 4 year warranty is included.
I believe the engineering college provides loaners to their students, so the benefits of buying at the bookstore are minimal. I’d double check that though.
My daughter just graduated from the COE and bought her computer at Best Buy and purchased the longest warranty. It was an Asus 2 in 1 and is still working fine. It was much less expensive than the options at the bookstore.