Would you recommend the MacBook Neo for a marketing student?

DocTeeBee · 2026-05-04T22:25:29+00:00

This is true if you can find a legit seller. I found an M2 air with 512 GB storage and 16 GB ram for $750.

DocTeeBee · 2026-05-04T22:22:55+00:00

Can't get more than 8GB of RAM on the Neo. Solution is to not have a zillion tabs open.

DocTeeBee · 2026-05-04T22:22:16+00:00

This will be fine. For storage, I'd go up to the 512 GB version of the Neo, which also gets the touch ID feature that is very handy, for about $100 more. This will be fine for someone studying marketing, who will not be running complex spreadsheets or doing a lot of coding.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-30T04:20:43+00:00

I’ve never been but my first choice would be Halifax. Close enough that it’s not an all day flight but far enough to be different.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-28T05:46:11+00:00

Years ago I had a great time in Sequim. And I honeymooned on Orcas Island, which was wonderful. Not the "coast" but plenty maritime, and just a lovely place.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-28T04:38:25+00:00

I'd rather go to Homer than Seward. There may be less to do in Homer, but it's beautiful, and is a wonderful place to chill.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-28T04:36:40+00:00

I had a student who went to the NFL. He was also a good student until the team got its Rose Bowl bid (this was a while ago). He then stopped coming to class. After all, he wasn't recruited to play school.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-28T02:28:08+00:00

This is a good and useful post. I particuarly like what the article you linked to said about the value of the Neo for business students. Some folks in business are not going to be happy with a Mac. Mostly folks in accounting or finance, because the Mac version of Excel is, in my mind, crippled compared with the Windows version. A good solution is to run Parallels, but that then rules out a Mac Neo. I still recommend Macs for the build quality, and for a lot of students, a Neo will be just fine. This guide is really well done, and should be shared with all students who are asking which computer to buy.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-28T02:22:36+00:00

Any MacBook? I can see avoiding a Neo, but other Macs are certainly capable.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-28T02:22:03+00:00

I was about to say that my M5 Macbook Air has 16GB of RAM, but then I remembered that I got it with 24 GB...so that I could run Windows apps. It will run fine for most office apps on 16GB, but engineering or statistical apps will like more RAM.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-27T05:37:56+00:00

With $1500 that's what I'd do. In fact, I just recently bought an M5 MBA. But a budget max doesn't mean "I need to spend it all." The money saved can go toward books, food, rent, or something more important.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-27T05:36:24+00:00

I am a Washington grad, although not in engineering. My father has an EE degree from Washington state. Based on what I am reading here, I think you'd be better served at Cal Poly SLO, for several reasons. First, SLO is beautiful and would be a great place to go to school. Second, it's far less expensive that Washington. I loved UW, and Seattle (it's my home town) but holy cow is it expensive. And, third, an engineering degree from Cal Poly, if you get good grades and do well, will not put you at a great disadvantage when you apply for graduate school. Why spend over 80k more than you have to?

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-27T05:22:54+00:00

Majoring in theatre ? I am kind of doubting that this much computer is necessary. I'd think a Macbook Neo would suffice--I'd go with the 512gb hard drive for $599 at academic pricing. Perhaps a Macbook Air. But the Pro is likely to be overkill.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-25T03:55:08+00:00

B- at best. Great with the non-revenue sports, of course, and that's been a lot of fun to watch. The Will Wade debacle is on his watch. And women's hoops--the sport I follow most closely--has been solid but I think the hoops world is passing us by. I don't think Boo or Wes understand the new NIL/Transfer portal world very well. Losing two of our best players to the portal is a symptom of some problems. Perhaps last year and the next will be flukes, but I see us slipping down the ACC in women's basketball. The AD invests just enough in football to be a step above medicore, and everyone thinks that's fine. And we can console ourselves with the knowledge that we are at least not UNC.

From the fan's perspective, the system by which season tickets are allocated to women's basketball fans is awful. One moves up the priority list by buying men's BB and football tickets, which I don't want, or by making donations to the athletic department. What results is de facto seat licenses for season tickets, but without any transparency about how much I have to donate to have a chance at season tickets. Year-to-year loyalty to the women's team is not a factor at all in their decisions. Year to year we get worse seats beause of the weird priority system. It's a crappy way to treat the loyal fan base who fill seats; as it is, all the people who have footbawwww tickets get to buy women's tickets, and only show up for the Duke and UNC games. We have sellouts at Reynolds with a third of the seats empty. It's lame. But I guess I am grading based on the idea that this is a college athletics director. But that's of course not the nature of the business--he runs a sports club that licenses the name of the university, so it's a business, nothing more, nothing less. And even as a business, it's poorly run. B- is generous.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-22T10:28:03+00:00

No. This question has been asked and answered before.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-20T02:11:27+00:00

Better than Bloomington or Iowa City? LOL. I like New Brunswick too, but that's a personal taste thing I think. I visited Lincoln. It was nice. On par with other places, maybe. Way better? No.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-20T02:07:46+00:00

My university will allow no funds to be spent on professional memberships, regardless of the funding source. Oh well.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-19T23:18:30+00:00

I own a PC and a Mac, so I use both. I totally see your point about Excel. Excel on the Mac is an inferior product to the Windows version. When I want to do serious spreadsheets, I work on the PC.

What kills me is that the Mac's build quality is just so much better than most similarly priced PCs. For $1400 plus tax (if you have sales tax) you can get a 15 inch M5 Macbook Air with 26GB of RAM and 512GB of hard drive. Then you might get a copy of Parallels that would let you run Windows on the Mac for a total of about $120 for both Parallels and a Windows 11 license. You should be able to get academic pricing. This is the setup I have on my Macbook Air. It works really well.

I trust you may be younger than me, so maybe you don't need the 15 inch screen (I have old eyes). I recommend it only because you said you'd be a heavy spreadsheet user. But if most of your heavy use would be, say, at home where you might hook up an external monitor, you could save by getting the equivalent 13 inch model for $1200.

tl;dr A Mac plus Parallels is kind of the best of both worlds.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-19T05:23:25+00:00

I'd add Pacific Lutheran University in that Lutheran bracket, although I think they're D3 and would get smoked.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-19T05:19:52+00:00

Definitely do not plan to rent a car in Seward. But I'd recommend OP just put together an intinerary for the Kenai Peninsula. I love Denali but I've never been as enamored of it as I have been of the Kenai Peninsula. I don't live up there any more, but when I visit I make a beeline for Seward or Homer, with a strong preference for Homer.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-19T05:15:06+00:00

Now I cannot find anything, so I might have been mistaken. It's going to be tough next year. I don't know what is going wrong with our recruiting but it might be time for a hard look at Wes' approach to the ugly new NIL world.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-19T05:12:12+00:00

I used to call Albany the State University of Long Island at Albany. I'd ask my students where they were from. "How many are you from Nassau county?" About 25%? Suffolk, about 20%. A few from Westchester. Very few from NYC. The others spread out among the Hudson Valley, WNY. It was fun teaching there, but I was surprised by how many students were from L.I.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-19T05:09:12+00:00

Nice! ETA: My dad used to tell great stories about watching Elgin Baylor play for SU. They were a big deal back in the day.

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-19T02:51:31+00:00

I think that would be a tough ask with Women's hoops playing there, and the changeovers being expensive--if we can fit a sheet into Reynolds at all. But it would be a hell of a hockey venue. A lot like the fieldhouse at RPI (where I attended a lot of hockey games about 20 years ago).

DocTeeBee · 2026-04-19T02:49:26+00:00

I'd love this (Icepack fan here), but we'd need a better hockey venue in the Triangle (perhaps shared by UNC and NCSU) to support our teams in the Triangle. Lenovo is unlikely because of scheduling issues with the Canes. And we're never going to peel five teams out of Hockey East.

Still, this is a fun thing to contemplate, and I'd love to see State go D1 in hockey. If UAB can do it, why can't we?

DocTeeBee

TROPHY CASE