laptop for school

[pudgie84]

i am starting school at Pacific next fall, and am looking around for a new laptop. the requierments they list are pretty basic. i'm leaning towards a lenovo w/ 750 GB hard, 6 GB RAM. for those at pacific, have you found that these specs would work just fine for your academic work, or would you suggest springing for something more powerful (for better speed, reliability, etc)? and they recommend getting a 3 yr extended warranty, but is your IT department pretty good at fixing problems? so do you think the warranty is neccessary?

anyone's experience with lenovo or other laptop advice would be much appreciated (i'm not so tech-savvy at the moment, although i better learn fast if i'm going to survive school, lol) thanks!

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[q1we3]

Why would you need a powerful laptop? You are going to optometry school not graphic designing. Buy the cheapest laptop on the market and save your money.

 

[QueenieCSS]

I can't say I know much about computer specs but I have a Macbook Pro without any fancy stuff on it and it seems to work just fine. I did buy the extra warranty and I have used it at least 2 times. It was mostly because I am pretty tough on my computer and you are dragging it around from class to lab, clinic to the library. It doesn't stay in one place very long.

As for the IT people - we have our own IT person in the optometry building but he isn't always around. The regular IT department is always willing to help but some things have to be done at the school (mostly things that involve the clinic software). But those things are usually network related and not computer related.

 

[pudgie84]

Why would you need a powerful laptop? You are going to optometry school not graphic designing. Buy the cheapest laptop on the market and save your money.

i know, i know it's just that when i talked to admissions they said the program we hook into takes a lot of space and they require you get a decent laptop that can handle it. and their IT Dept recommends that i buy the best laptop i can afford. but really, i don't plan on spending more than $700 or so. i just can't stand slow ass computers when i'm trying to do schoolwork and i wasn't sure if they were hyping up the amount of info their program/network uses or what

 

[wideeyes]

Hey there! Congrats on getting in As far as laptops go, I agree with previous posters. You'll be just fine if you follow the minimum requirements. I got my laptop at Costco for about $500-ish (it's a HP) and it's been just fine at Pacific, even with the electronic medical records we use. I don't know of anyone in my class that had problems with laptops that weren't powerful enough.

I hope this helps!

 

[Jibslider]

When I was at Pacific, we had to load the clinic software (EMR) onto our laptops and bring our laptops with us to clinic. IF this is still the case, I would get the smallest and lightest laptop you are comfortable with.

Congrats on getting in, the Pacific Northwest is fantastic.

 

[Roffles]

Go with some small and light, but also look into battery life. You aren't going to want to drag a cable around all day.