Wed Sep 22, 2010 1:46 pm
More than likely NYU can get deep discounts on they MacBook pros they offer. I bet they can even incorporate the purchase of one into your tuition. If it were me and I was a brand new Film/art student I would go with the MBP. However, I would suggest you talk to the existing students about it and see what they suggest. More than likely you will find students that have or are using non-Apple branded HW and are getting by. Dont forget to ask your professors too. But be wary that they themselves might get kickbacks for just suggesting one brand over another. Much like what they get from Book publishers for utilizing one textbook over another.
The last thing I would want you to realize is having a "off" brand may be more trouble than it is worth. For example, you are assigned a group project. 95% of your class utilize MBPs with the said Mac software. You are broken down in groups of 5 and 4 of you have MBPs and the 5th has some FrankenPC. Each of you take a portion of the project to work on and then you all meet to finalize the project as one. Will the data/information/document/ etc transfer from the FrankenPC to the other 4s MBPs, easily? Is the user of said FrankenPC a techie and can make it work seemlessy? Are you? Or will you end up re-writting/re-doing that 5ths members work?
All of this needs to be considered before you make a decision. But if you ask me, I would reply with: "If the majority of Film students at NYU have MacBook Pros then thats what you should go with."
NINJA EDIT: Also I would watch the Mac forums and rumor blogs (macrumors.com) and delay your purchase as long as you can. This is so you can get the latest and greatest and not be caught in a hardware cycle when a refresh is a month out.
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