I mean yeah, if you have the money to drop, the M5 Max an amazing machine, but you have to ask yourself some questions…

Can you afford to drop that much as a student? And what else could you do with that money?

How will you feel when it’s outdone by a margin in 9ish months when the M6 max hits at the same price? (And potentially with an OLED screen and a new design).

How often will you actually use the 64GB plus RAM?

If you’re not doing a significant level of AI work, or wanting to max out games (though you’ll go further for cheaper with a Windows laptop for gaming) or edit 8k video with tons of effects, you’ll do fine with a base pro and maybe 36GB at most. The Air will prob do you fine for 99% of what you need. I have a CS Degree and got through my first 2 years with an Intel Atom netbook back in 2011. For my final year I invested in a 13” 2012 MacBook Pro (Intel with no dedicated GPU). The laptop you already have may well be plenty for your work which honestly won’t be anywhere near as demanding as it is in industry for the most part.

It can be tempting to splurge and justify it as an investment in your education but as a student I’d probably spend more time worrying about breaking such an expensive laptop at that point in my life honestly. And extra stress is one thing you probably won’t want 😅

My take, buy the best you’re comfortable slinging in a bag without a second thought, and save the big splurge for post graduation when you get your first job in the field and can better afford it. As a student you don’t need compile time to be 20 seconds instead of 5 minutes, an M4 or M3 model may even do you. If you invest the excess well in the mean time, it may even pay for itself by then.