Hello, my name is Peter, and I've been with James Madison College for 19 years as the IT/Systems Analyst. While I don't often work with students directly, I often get asked about the MSU laptop requirement. While you may be stressing about a laptop purchase, it's not as important as you think, just about any laptop will do these days. The following advice is my own personal opinion and may not reflect the opinion of Michigan State. This page was updated on July 20th, 2023.
Amazon is running a great deal on a MacBook Air M1 for $749.99. It is a tremendous value and should last well past your college career. Pricing does vary but it's currently $749.99.
Detailed recommendation: Apple MacBook Air M1 or M2 with 512gb storage and 16gb of ram, with AppleCare, purchased on a credit card that offers extended warranty for free (varies by card provider). The M2 version is also fine, but specced the same - but it's just slightly sleeker, slightly faster, and slightly more expensive. You get an educational discount, just show your ID at the Apple Store or order online in the Apple higher education shop. You can purchase the 256gb / 8gb ram variants as well, they are ever so slightly slower and multitask slightly less efficient, but they are more than sufficient. Check pricing at Amazon, Costco, and the Apple Higher Education store.
In June of 2023, Apple released a 15" MacBook Air. While it's slightly less portable, the larger screen is a joy to use and it's my current favorite computer.
Why do I recommend a Mac over a PC? The Macs are indeed slightly more expensive (10-25%) but they last about twice as long, and are about 3 times as fast, and are much less likely to have issues.
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Apple has released the M2 generation of laptops. The M1 models are fine and can be easier to find. Here are my thoughts on all the currently available models. I would still go for the M1 MacBook Air.
I grew up as a PC user but currently use a Mac, so I am well versed in both and both are good choices. If you're looking for an easy recommendation, I recommend the 2020 MacBook Air with M1 proccesor. Now with Apple's own processor, this computer is competitively priced, lasts 15 hours on battery, and is faster than most PCs. You can buy with an educational discount. You could get a 2020 MacBook Pro but the Air is more than sufficient for my needs as an IT Professional and you can avoid spending the extra money. On the PC side, I would recommend Dell, either a Latitude 5400 series, or an XPS13. Again, make sure to get an i5 quad core (stay away from dual core), and 256gb of solid state storage or more (SSD). For Intel chips on PC, I would get 12th generation, or 11th generation, but not any earlier - this phrase will appear in the specs. I would lean towards the Mac though, we have fewer issues with them, and with the new Apple Silicon chips it's hard to recommend a PC at this point.
Yet another note about PC vs Mac: my tech support calls for the laptops themselves is over 8:1. I have about 8 PC issues for every 1 Mac issue. Dead batteries, wifi issues, terrible sound quality, PCs just aren't as good and don't last as long.
What to avoid: anything 'used' or renewed. ANY Intel Mac, and the 2016-2019 Macs all had a design flaw in the keyboard. Note, used is fine if it's a family computer, or your high school laptop. It's hard to know what you get when you buy one off Facebook Marketplace, etc. The only exception to this is Apple renewed direct from Apple. They do a pretty good job.
If you have an existing laptop, feel free to take that and use it. Just make sure you use your free cloud storage as a student. You don't NEED a new laptop to be a successful student. You do NEED to backup your files to be a successful student.
I don't recommend a tablet acting as a primary computing device, although several students I know do it and they seem to like it. A Chromebook, while inexpensive, would be too limiting. An iPad as your daily driver is likely not going to be sufficient, and they are more expensive and less flexible when you price anything but the lowest end model. If you were to get an iPad Pro and a Magic Keyboard, that's more than a good laptop would cost and it would do less. So don't do that.
I am required to run anti virus on departmental operated machines, but for student machines, MSU offers a discounted option. PC/Windows has anti virus built in and Mac machines are slightly less prone to infections. I don't use anti virus on my personal machines, as long as you are careful you should be fine. And, an anti virus will lull you into a false sense of security. They won't stop you from reusing passwords, or clicking links you shouldn't, or installing software that you shouldn't. If you're mindful of what you're clicking on, downloading, and installing, you should be ok.