Best Laptops for College by Major

Are you heading off to college in the fall - or do you have a loved one who is? Chances are, you are in the market for a laptop computer. While it is tempting to head to the store and get whatever is on sale, take a moment to think about your college freshman's major and what their technical requirements may be.

See the top selling, best rated laptops on Amazon.com right now, here.

An English major does not need the same storage as an Architecture major, and a Communications major does not need the same processing power as a Computer Science major. Find the best deals on the laptop that fits your college student's needs so you can rest assured that this will be the only computer you need to buy them for the next 4 years.

A Dell Inspiron Laptop

If your college freshman is entering college in an architecture program, they will have a unique set of technical requirements. Although you may be tempted to get a Mac due to the large screen and pervasive use in other design fields - Don't! Almost all architecture firms rely on PCs, not Macs. A big reason for this is that the AutoCAD software universal used in this field is made for PCs.

You will want a PC laptop with a large screen, a good deal of memory built-in to handle the large file sizes of technical drawings, and a strong enough processor to run AutoCAD, and a good graphics card.

See this Dell Inspiron laptop for the lowest price online at Amazon.com

This Dell Inspiron 17.3-Inch Laptop fits the bill for an architecture major with its large 17.3" screen, Intel i7-4500U Processor 1.8 GHz, and 8GB of memory. This machine packs a lot of power for a small price of less than $800.

Try The Lenovo IdeaPad

As a computer science major it is likely that you will be spending a lot of time in your school's computer lab working on projects alone and with class assigned teams. That being said, you will still want a high performance laptop with good battery life for when you are working alone or in your dorm room.

While most development work is done in Windows, you can still go ahead and get a Mac if your heart is set on it, but be sure to purchase a program like BootCamp so that you can partition and install Windows on your Mac.

An Apple MacBook Pro

If your college freshman is interested in journalism, publishing or design and graphic arts, an Apple laptop is in the cards for you. The Mac has been the number one choice for years in the communications industry, so more than likely your college student will be using Macs for years to come.

Acer Aspire ES1-511-C59V 15.6-Inch Laptop

If your college freshman is an English major count yourself lucky! Since English majors don't require huge amounts of processing power or graphics capability you can probably get away with a reasonably priced machine. Some things that you may want to consider are the ability to attach a full sized keyboard for comfort when writing long papers in your dorm room, a large enough screen to work in comfort, and a lightweight machine for ease of transport throughout campus.

A great low priced option is the Acer Aspire AS5750-6414 available from Amazon for $250. This portable laptop has plenty of built in memory, good graphics and a long battery life.