<p>oops, my bad. I meant to say that the The Airs do not have ethernet connectors, which wires all the dorm rooms. Not only is ethernet faster than wireless, it’s also more dependable. A lot of college dorms at built with cement block-walls, which is great for sound-deadening and insulation, but which blocks wireless making it inconsistent, even in colleges which claim to be 100% wireless…</p>
<p>From one college’s website:</p>
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<p>This is all good info. My DD’s college “requires” her to have a Macbook Pro but as a dance major I am not sure it is really a necessity. However, the school does service it and load a bundle of software to it for her. Considering the lifespan of the Macs and the available warranties I feel a little better about the huge expense for a student who will not use it for too much outside of some gen ed/music courses and social networking.</p>
<p>We got a Macbook pro for DS last week through Amazon. Like a previous poster said, with the savings from sales tax and free two day shipping it worked out less expensive than using the student discount.
DS said he knew of the new release in a couple of months, but we live outside of the US, and he wanted it before he came home so that he could get used to using it over the summer.
It’s a GREAT laptop by the way. He’s used windows through high school, and now switching to Mac like a lot of his friends.</p>
<p>The other consideration is to get a used Mac during the “product refresh interval” and save hundreds. Assuring that the device has Applecare warranty is a practical concern. Because every 8 to 12 months, another technological advance, and the important stuff is your files, which can be easily stored anywhere. The new line of IvyBridge Macs due in June/July may not have native Ethernet – so people have been complaining about the need to buy a clunky adapter to route data through the Thunderbolt port or the USB port. But that’s the price of making things ultraskinny without losing battery life.</p>