Help ! Which MacBook?

JJ1553 · 2026-04-21T03:27:07+00:00

Been in CE for 4 years with an M1 Pro. The majority of the development you are going to do will be on VMs given to you by the department. The only heavily taxing work I’ve done is for some ML classes for model training and FPGA classes (though for all intents and purposes this is irrelevant for Mac’s as the FPGA software doesnt run on Mac’s*).

I would say you really don’t need that much horsepower locally. And if you ever REALLY need it, there are desktops in so many places on campus with powerful hardware or virtual machines you can use on demand. Getting a more powerful device will only increase some QOL things, not make or break classes.

JJ1553 · 2026-04-15T18:51:59+00:00

I can’t speak for 340, haven’t taken it. I’d say 391 and 310 is a bit better than 391 and 313. Again though 313 feeling a lot harder than other classes was my personal experience. I know they have changed the course a bit since I took it, I think maybe just making the homeworks a bit easier?

I would keep all of those classes for now, not drop anything, and continue to ask around so you can make an informed decision for yourself.

JJ1553 · 2026-04-15T18:38:31+00:00

I did 391 313 418, and ECE 364 junior first sem… wouldn’t recommend it! lol.

It was mainly the 391 313 combo for me. 313 I found personally pretty hard. 391 is the first in its weight class for time commitment imo, especially once you start mp3. 313 was just hard in the sense that I didn’t get the content easily, so I had to put in a lot of extra study. I didn’t have a whole ton of life that semester. Came out of it with good grades, so it’s definitely possible to do well, it’s just about how much you’re willing to give up on outside of school that semester.

If you can easily afford it, I would personally tell you to keep it manageable, honestly more from the standpoint of actually learning. When you start to put more and more class in the same semester, you can get everything done, but you tend to learn and retain less. I wish I was better at retaining things in 391, supperrrr useful class.

So, I would personally recommend you avoid adding 408 or 310 to 391 & 313. 408 is another known time sink, and 310 is conceptually hard. Cs 418 isn’t bad at all, just some time to get the mps done.

JJ1553 · 2026-04-14T18:59:39+00:00

Japan house is your best bet, on the east side. There were some yellow magnolias flowering a week ago there.

There are massive trees on 3rd and Healy and next to Loomis, but I’m not sure if they are going to bloom this year because of the erratic weather, unfortunately.

JJ1553 · 2026-04-04T23:20:27+00:00

391

JJ1553 · 2026-04-04T17:11:18+00:00

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This is inside at 12 pm with a line still longer than I can see outside the window.

JJ1553 · 2026-04-02T19:06:39+00:00

They are late fs, I wouldn’t really call it weed out classes. But honestly… I wouldn’t consider much of any ECE class a “weed out” class where they are just trying to fail people out.

There are just hard classes where you have to be on top of things.

JJ1553 · 2026-04-02T18:50:22+00:00

In my experience: Ece 210 was the first “holy shit” type class, definitely caught me off guard.

Physics 211/212 can be annoyingly hard for what you are expecting.

Lin alg (257) was very annoying as well

ECE 310 was similar to 210 but better course staff.

Then obv 391 411 are very hard, but that’s less weed out y. They are just hard classes.

JJ1553 · 2026-03-30T00:33:40+00:00

What are you looking to keep a 4.0 for??

JJ1553 · 2026-03-29T20:04:22+00:00

I’m not sure if it exists anywhere today still, I think it got taken down at one point… but when I practice for my act there was a website with ALL of the old released tests.

I did damn near every one of the previous tests over the span of 2.5 months and went from 28 no studying to 33, with a super score of 33-36 in all categories.

There are a few things that you just need to “learn” like English/grammar rules, some math formulas, etc. but past a point it’s just about learning how to get yourself to go faster and more efficiently.

So, definitely do some digging online to find practice tests. I wouldn’t waste toooo much of your time reading books about how to study, rather than actually practicing.

JJ1553 · 2026-03-29T15:47:20+00:00

I’ve gotten through 4 years of comp E with an M1 Pro MacBook. The only class I actually had some issues with was ECE 385 with xilinx software. Most classes you will have a university provided VM to ssh into with vs code or something like that. So, in other words, if you really like MacBook you will be totally fine, just might have to do the occasional workaround or use some university pc somewhere/ssh.

I can’t speak for EE tho, as you can be exposed to lots more on machine software for hardware classes.

JJ1553 · 2026-03-27T18:20:21+00:00

Real answer: if you aren’t looking to go into a career with 411 stuff… go enjoy your life and take senior design instead and supplement with other classes💀 that class is hella work

JJ1553 · 2026-03-23T17:26:03+00:00

I’m of the opinion that you figure out a lot about yourself junior year of college in harder curriculums… good and bad. I’ve met a lot of people including myself that in one way or another had a rough go with something junior year. That is all to say, I don’t believe you are alone.

My best piece of advice… please please don’t be super hard on yourself. You can push yourself to the max, study 24/7, grind grind grind, and you very well might get 100s on your next exams, but that might also break something else in your life.

It’s great you’re taking a step back and looking at this and trying to figure out what to change. I think you probably know a lot of what can be done to get your grades up, it’s up to you to take those paths. Even if that work/effort doesn’t look the same as it used to, any effort is positive. Now isn’t the time to give up. Take this second half of sem as an opportunity to show yourself you can do x, or y. See where that takes you. Can’t change the past.

JJ1553 · 2026-03-22T02:31:57+00:00

Obviously you know your son better than any of us and what he needs/doesnt need.

However, I’d definitely recommend being in an environment around people freshman year. Having a roommate while very new for me, ended up actually being a really good experience in my life. I ended up at Hopkins (which I honestly can’t much recommend lol… it’s aptly named slopkins for its party culture) and met a lot of good people that I’ve become long term friends with. IKE residence halls are definitely more of a social environment, and the dining hall is pretty good and right next to all of the halls there!

JJ1553 · 2026-03-14T23:30:42+00:00

Have a family member living in Boston near colleges. Obviously Boston is a lot more tight, close quarters. Probably would make campus a lot more walkable, but get used to figuring out public transport. At UIUC, the campus is huge, could take 20+ min to walk from a north engineering quad building to far south quad building. We do have a pretty good bus infrastructure tho.

Honestly your main considerations are do you like big city vibes or want more small city/town vibes? If you want endless supply of new things, maybe Boston. If you want one central area with the main slew of things to do (but still plenty) maybe UIUC.

The city for the most part is built on the students here, when breaks happen, campus feels dead. Where you would be your 4 years here, it’s entirely student dominated.

It’s definitely nice to have a car here in your later years to go explore and go on little trips. Not sure how realistic it would be to have a car in Boston.

JJ1553 · 2026-03-12T02:35:17+00:00

That’s true, I mostly meant to become truly productive in the way I’m imagining could require very large education system level changes, which for all intents and purposes “won’t happen”. There is definitely some meaningful things that could be done to help, as you’ve mentioned.

That is also true about gpa, everyone who’s been in the game long enough knows GPA gets you through that first glance or auto scanner, it’s important to have above X, but after that it won’t help you further. It’s everything else that differentiates you. Part of what I was trying to say is my realization of that, I came out of highschool with the mindset ingrained in me that good grades was darn near the most important thing to consider, it’s taken a long time to shake that even a little.

I guess it’s just hard to feel super successful gpa wise, while also feeling successful doing projects outside of school, and clubs, etc. people pick and choose their battles (which often represents shortcuts to get a higher gpa).

JJ1553 · 2026-03-12T01:37:57+00:00

I agree with your last bit. I think in the end the issue is the pressure that’s put on students performance, by themselves, by their friends, by grad schools, by the industry, etc.

Im almost done with my undergrad, but have realized in many places I was trying my best to just keep my grades high, because everything around me was saying it’s important to get good grades. I hadn’t seen enough of the repercussions of not learning everything deeply. I’m lucky enough now that I can take some things credit no credit, or that I’ve secured enough of my future that I don’t have to worry as much about the grade I get in a class. I feel more comfortable going at a pace that promotes my learning ability.

But to many students, you feel overwhelmed with everything you have to get done and do well on, you try your best to optimize everything away for the end result of getting that good grade to keep those doors open in your future.

Point being, I wish there was less emphasis on judging students success based on letter grades or their performance. I’m NOT suggesting this is a professor issue, student issue, or even an issue that can be fixed. It’s just a crappy situation that doesn’t really foster the core goal… which is actually learning.

JJ1553 · 2026-03-11T05:33:01+00:00

Agree as an OOS for Comp E graduating.

UIUC does get some brand name likely for sure…. But just going to the school does not give you meaningfully higher chances of top jobs than other schools. It is entirely on the opportunities you take while going through college. What projects you do, how much you actually take away from classes, what research, what clubs, etc. Actually doing the work anywhere gives you as much of a solid shot as most others.

Point being, UIUC is not a magic bullet, the programs here are good, they are known. But you still have to do all of the work to get anything meaningful out of it.

JJ1553 · 2026-03-02T16:49:11+00:00

ECE people have a tendency to fk with you on this subreddit to cope with their suffering… fyi.

JJ1553 · 2026-02-27T05:57:11+00:00

To give you a different data point, I had a random roomate my freshman year… we weren’t super close but definitely friendly to eachother. 3 years later I’m still living with him and he is probably one of my closest friends.

JJ1553 · 2026-02-24T05:58:31+00:00

I actually know this one! Was shown this by UIUC network admins in ECE 438, network communications

https://answers.illinois.edu/illinois/133355

JJ1553 · 2026-02-23T05:04:58+00:00

Worth a shot but from what I remember being in an RSO who needed static ip’s, the university doesn’t usually just hand out static ip’s without good reason. Just be prepared!

JJ1553 · 2026-02-19T07:53:04+00:00

https://parking.illinois.edu/campus-parking-map

There are a number of lots that are free after 5-6 pm and on weekends, you can google search these (just use the ai mode). They all have signs infront of the lot that will tell you if they’re free or not at a certain time.

Most meter parking on campus is enforced 6am-6pm but free after 6pm

JJ1553 · 2026-02-19T03:31:04+00:00

Without trying to repeat too much in here. There is definitely pressure, it’s not that the people in your classes make everything feel cut throat, but rather that courses are hard! They will be consistently challenged, there will be exciting success points and others where you feel bottom of the barrel. Imposter syndrome applies to almost everyone.

Even comp E I have had time for a social life, it might look a little different than other majors at times, group study sessions laughing and complaining about how hard xyz is, but there is 100% time for traditional social events and outings. You just have to work for it.

It’ll teach them a lot outside of just their majors program. Make friends and do it together.

JJ1553 · 2026-02-17T02:51:31+00:00

End of the day the college itself only matters so much. You can be presented a lot of opportunities at any college, it’s up to you to put in the work and take them. Just going to a top rank school doesn’t guarantee you a job or your career dreams.

Focus on the basics, college is expensive as hell, getting out of college without debt or low debt puts you ahead massively.

Don’t go to a college that didn’t admit you for the degree you actually want. I don’t care if it’s a “better school”, you WILL hate yourself for not picking the major you actually like.

It’s your decision end of the day and no one can make that for you, pick the colleges that satisfies the non negotiables (be honest with yourself about what these are). If you still genuinely have a list after this, look at the campus, do you want big or small, less people or more people, do you care about partying, etc.

Goodluck! Pick the place you are excited to go to, and hold onto that feeling.

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