This year before actually arriving on campus I spent a lot of time reading the prospective student message boards. One of the big topics of discussion was always choice of computer: many prospective students wanted to get a Mac but were unsure whether it was going to “work” at Kenan-Flagler. This post is for those incoming students in the class of 2011 that would really like to get a Mac but are worried about about compatibility.
I bought a Macbook Pro and have never looked back. This post isn’t about why I prefer a Mac. While I (like so many other snotty Mac users) could talk your ear off about that, I’m trying to be a little more constructive here.
First off, realize that if you get a Mac you’re not alone. I’d estimate at least 5% and maybe as many as 10% of my class have Macs, probably about evenly split between the standard Macbook and the Pro. With that many users, there’s always someone to help you out if you run into a problem.
Here are my thoughts and tips:
- Install virtualized Windows. I personally use VMWare Fusion, but Parallels is fine too. Every once in a while you just have to use Windows (especially two Excel add-ons, Crystal Ball and tree plan, both used in Mod 1). In such cases it’s much more convenient if you don’t have to restart in boot camp.
- Entourage works fine and most people use it. You can respond to calendar invites, do busy searches, reserve rooms, browse public folders, and look people up in the address book.
- I don’t use Entourage. I used it for two months and then just got completely fed up. It’s a very average program, whereas iCal and Mail are both very lightweight and good. So, don’t think that you need to use Entrourage if you’re used to something else. You’ll need to get a little creative though (see next bullet).
- You need to keep your Outlook Calendar up-to-date. It’s important. The non-Entourage way I do it is actually kind of geeky, but I’ll summarize. My primary calendar is iCal (love it). This syncs to Google Calendar via Spanning Sync. Then I sync up Google Calendar with Outlook using Google’s really simple sync program. This all happens in the background–I just had to install the software and now I let it do its thing. If you use Entourage you don’t have to worry about any of this.
- Outlook Web Access works just fine in Safari and Firefox.
- All shared drives are accessible via FTP; there’s an easy how-to guide. I use an FTP program that I like a lot called Transmit and a classmate recommends one called FireFTP.
- Printing to the school printers is easy. Again, there’s a how-to guide.
- You’ll use Solver a lot. Fortunately, there’s a pretty decent Solver for MS Office 2008 now. I’ve found it to be functionally equivalent to the Windows version.
- Spend the $$ to buy extra RAM. When you’re virtualizing Windows Vista it really helps to have all the RAM you can get. I bought 4GB online for $80 and installed it myself. Super cheap and super easy. There are videos on YouTube that will show you how.
- The IT help desk will try to help you. They may not always have all the answers but they usually do pretty well.
That’s really it as far as Kenan-Flagler specific things. My last recommendation (really a plea): try out Quicksilver. It’s one of the things that can boost your productivity dramatically on OS X. Look around for tips and tricks on how best to use it. It takes a little while to learn but can make your life much easier.
Overall, I wouldn’t worry too much about getting a Mac if that’s the way you already wanted to go. Macs work just fine at Kenan-Flagler. There are times when you may have to work a little harder, but weigh that against the benefits of OS X and from my perspective there’s a clear choice.
- Tristan
5 Comments
12/13/2008
Great post, Tristan. The only thing I’d add, and I always mention this when I give tours to prospectives, is that if you haven’t owned a Mac before, business school might not be the best time to buy your first.
12/13/2008
Yeah, that’s fair as a general rule, although I hadn’t owned a Mac before…
12/26/2008
Hey Shawn and Tristan, this is Matt, from the 2nd year.
I’ve always been a mac user, and remain one now. But the drawbacks went from almost none a year ago to almost crippling this year, thanks entirely to Microsoft. Office 08 is such a disaster I can’t recommend it – and therefore can’t recommend the mac – to anyone.
(I’m excluding the option of running Windows on your mac, either through direct boot or through parallels – I don’t see the cost and performance of that option being preferable to just buying a windows machine)
Excel (the workhorse of Bschool) is a wreck, stripped of both functions and user interface. Its usable, of course, but lacks both a solver and a any real data analysis tools. But that’s just the internal problems. Worse, I found, was that when I got an internship over the summer, and had to use Excel on a company computer, I was way behind just because the entire menu and interface system is so different. This wasn’t true with the previous versions, where the Excel menus looked alike and used similiar command structures.
Entourage is even worse – along with being a poor-cousin to Outlook (scheduling, addressing etc) and a very poor mail client, if you mistakenly buy the wrong ‘version’ of the Office package, it won’t work with the school’s Exchange system (I know of at least 3 people in my class, including new mac users, who got burned by this by missing the fine print, and ‘returns’ are generally not an option for software). Most frustrating is that the “student” version is one of the versions that won’t work.
There is an upside: Mac Mail, the built in mail on new macs, will sync with Exchange, so you can skip Entourage all together for email. THis still leaves you exposed on the calendar issue.
It isn’t apple’s fault, but while I felt fine recommending Macs last year for incoming Bschool students, MS has so handicapped the Office suite that I can’t honestly do it anymore.
It’s a good topic, though, and I appreciate you guys posting on it!
12/27/2008
Matt -
Thanks for the additional perspective. I just wanted to respond to your comment with some additional details:
- People’s opinions of Mac Office 08 vary widely and it has become something of a quasi-religious debate. I’m very familiar with both 08 for Mac and 07 for Windows and I like 08 very much and use it extensively. I think prospective students are best left to choose their preferences for themselves as both are viable alternatives for most tasks. Like I mentioned in my original post, sometimes it’s necessary to use Windows and Office 07, mostly due to certain Excel add-ins.
- There is a solver and it works perfectly well–please check out the link in my original post.
- Every first year Mac user that I’m aware of has a virtualized Windows on their machine (either Parallels or VMWare Fusion). Some people use it more than others. I probably use Windows on my computer once a week or so; some use it every day.
- I agree with you on Entourage, and it’s a great point about making sure not to purchase the Student Edition. Even though I agree with you, Entourage is widely used in our class, so for many students it works out OK.
12/31/2008
I would not encourage Parallels, I have been using it for about a year and it totally slows down your system and takes up so much memory. I have heard the VM Fusion is better so I would put that as my first pic for any future buyers. Thanks for posting, I love Macs!
Natalie