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A Mac for civil engineering students?

coco -  
txiki Posted messages 6514 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   -

Hello,

I am going to start a 5-year program at EPFL (Bachelor in Civil Engineering), and although I know it's a topic that raises some eyebrows, do you think it's a good idea to buy a MacBook Pro 16 inches with:

16-core GPU,

M1 Pro 10-core chip,

16 GB of RAM, and

512 GB of storage (which I will definitely compensate for with a 1 TB SSD).

Thank you for your responses, I noticed that some software used in mechanical engineering cannot run on macOS, and I just wanted to get more opinions here :)

Thank you and have a great day!

2 answers

  1.
    txiki Posted messages 6514 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   609
     

    Hello everyone,
    "some software used in mechanical engineering could not run on macOS": Exactly!
    Not all software runs on all platforms.
    It's the first thing to check, to know which software you will need and what are the requirements to run them (power, processor speed, RAM size, etc.).
    Best regards!

    1
  2. brucine Posted messages 25279 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 188
     

    Hello,

    Aren't you confusing your needs and your wants?

    I don't know if specific software on a personal PC is essential for the curriculum at this school; if that’s the case, the teachers will clarify it, and I suppose that the requirement to have such a type of computer upon entry would be specified if it is indeed a prerequisite.

    We should also not prejudge the future: unlike the French system where external prep schools are still predominant, once admitted based on the application, selection at EPFL takes place during the course, with a failure rate in the first year of around 40 to 50%.

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