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Old 2009 April 7th, 09:31 PM   #1 (permalink)
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Macbook for economics?
Hello every one.

I think we should discuss about what kind of laptop one should go for when going to graduate school in economics.

I've been thinking about buying a macbook, yet, I don't know how reliable they are in terms of econometrics software I might use to perform better on my courses.

The other options are an HP tx, or a Dell XPS.

I am not a software/hardware geek, and generally, people I know who are into the PC-Linux-Leopard world always tell me geek things like going for linux at any PC. So, it goes nowhere.

Any advice is welcomed.
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Old 2009 April 7th, 09:59 PM   #2 (permalink)
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Anything with enough ability to run SAS and LaTeX. You might want to work on problem sets in TeX, and SAS handles large data sets well (while STATA doesn't). My MacBook seems to be enough as you can boot one into Windows using Boot Camp.

Also, this exact topic came up like two weeks ago. It hit five pages of discussion.
http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-econo...endations.html (Laptop Recommendations)
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You're absolutely correct YoungEconomist. However, I've been spoiled over the past several years by living in some of the hottest cities in the world. I have been SPOILED.
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Old 2009 April 7th, 10:01 PM   #3 (permalink)
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This is a non-issue as Macs can run Windows. Also, Macbooks are amazing... That is my vote.
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Old 2009 April 7th, 10:06 PM   #4 (permalink)
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This is a non-issue as Macs can run Windows. Also, Macbooks are amazing... That is my vote.
Macbooks are like the Blue Moon of computers... take that however you want, C152
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Old 2009 April 7th, 11:22 PM   #5 (permalink)
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Macbooks are like the Blue Moon of computers... take that however you want, C152
Sweet and light... but without much substance
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Old 2009 April 7th, 11:27 PM   #6 (permalink)
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I love my Macbook. I was a devoted PC user until about August. I bought a Mac (free iPod whoo hoo!), had about a week of "I hate Macs, I wish I hadn't bought this", then fell completely in love and will never go back.

They're reliable, they're fast, they handle all my STATA stuff without problems. Pretty cool.
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Old 2009 April 8th, 12:10 AM   #7 (permalink)
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They're reliable, they're fast, they handle all my STATA stuff without problems. Pretty cool.
Yeah totally agreed. I don't remember if it was mentioned in the other thread, but STATA has a native Mac application that runs like a dream.
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For those that have not applied this year, next year don't send 13 different applications, but send 13 applications to your #1 choice.
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You're absolutely correct YoungEconomist. However, I've been spoiled over the past several years by living in some of the hottest cities in the world. I have been SPOILED.
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Old 2009 April 8th, 12:18 AM   #8 (permalink)
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I got a Macbook back in December and am loving it. I love the LaTeX interface I'm using -- can't remember which, but it was recommended in the other thread.

Glad to hear STATA runs well on Macs, since I am most familiar with STATA.
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Old 2009 April 8th, 12:19 AM   #9 (permalink)
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Haha, wasn't a comment on macs... so much as on Blue Moon.

I for one will steer clear of this whole Vista debacle. And wait till June so I can upgrade. I want a tablet pc, and macintosh don't make em.
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Old 2009 April 8th, 02:37 AM   #10 (permalink)
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I generally like my macbook a lot. However, I do find that Matlab (the language of choice for first-year PhD students here, for some reason) runs somewhat slower on Macs than on PCs. This means that it takes my computer about a minute to optimize over the baby-RBC models I've been programming, rather than 45 seconds.
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