Which one? He is studying finance and is 19 years old.
It depends, is money tight or is 1-3k not too big a deal? Because a LOT of computers get stolen, damaged, dropped or stuff spilled on them at college. Macs are built alright, but a lot of things will result in extremely expensive repairs.
IMO if he doesn’t “need” a Mac and money is at least a bit tight, then go used, maybe a few generations old ThinkPad or Dell business laptop, or an M1 series or newer Mac (Don’t buy a used Intel Mac, just don’t, especially with official support ending sooner than later)
If you want to get a Mac anyways, the Apple Edu site gives you a decent discount, otherwise look at either new from Apple, Costco, Microcenter or best buy, OR Apple direct refurbished and never 3rd party “refurbished ” or used on Craigslist/ FB Marketplace (one of the most stolen laptops out there, and it likely has a MDM or account lock on the hardware once it connects to a network or is reset)
The 15” Air is a sweet spot for portability and usability with decent speakers, the 13” Air sacrifices speaker quality and screen real-estate for more portability. The 14” Pro gives you active cooling, really good speakers, a really good screen, more ports. The 16” Pro is kinda big and heavy but has a better base CPU/ GPU plus other performance bumps, but the big feature is the 16” screen and the big price tag.
Hi there, I work with a number of fresh graduates in accounting, finance, business, etc at my workplace. Macs are commonly used by business folk since they have a long battery life and are fairly lightweight. There is also a sense in which they are a little more “professional” and “clean” in business meetings and discussions. I work as an engineer so I need to use Windows and Linux, but my management and the operations/finance/sales/business guys will use Macs for that clean and professional look. There is also the added benefit that the Mac laptops do have loud fans which otherwise could be sometimes embarrassing in high-profile meetings with customer management.
Overall, if the student thinks he needs a Mac for business school, it’ll probably be a good choice. I recommend getting a used Macbook Air or Pro (recommend the 2022 M1 or M2, 16GB models or newer) on Backmarket since they have a 30-day return policy.
If buying new from Apple, make sure to get the education discount.