[ewoodh2o]

As an EE or CS major, an iPad isn't going to cut it as your portable device. Like others have said, you're going to want something that can run IDEs or hardware interfaces in labs or at group project meetings.

YMMV, but don't obsess over being able to take notes on it in class. In my experience (Computer Engineering degree from Georgia Tech three years ago), professors will move so fast that you'll find a keyboard limiting. Engineering degrees especially are all about diagrams and graphs, and it's just not easy to get those into a computer quickly enough in class. This is less important in CS classes, but you'll shuffle through the same core Calc and Physics classes and run into the same problem.

Also, if you go the EE route, you're going to have to run Windows occasionally. Lots of the specialized lab software, board design tools, circuit simulators, etc just aren't available for OS X. Don't get me wrong - I love my MBP and finished out my degree on the first gen Core 2 Duo MBP running Parallels. But make sure you get something beefy enough to do that, and I'm not sure the 13" MBP is going to be future-resistant enough in that respect.

My advice - figure out how to afford a 15" i5 MBP, even if it means adding $500 or so to your loans.

[jmtulloss]

Having recently graduated with a computer engineering degree, I absolutely agree with this. Buy a small, powerful laptop that can run both Linux and windows, and you should be happy. Personally, I would also recommend the Mac, but Linux and windows are the two you need to be able to run.

Of course, every major university has labs that will have the equipment and software you need, so you can probably get away with whatever you prefer. I was more a software guy than a hardware guy, so I ran Mac exclusively and just used the lab machines when I needed to use Windows software.

[charlesju]

I've been out of college for the last year and a half so perhaps I'm already ancient, but I'd like to also recommend using a laptop. I used to carry my laptop everywhere I went, should be a lot easier now with netbooks. However, I would recommend using a Mac just because the sheer user experience of the mac (plus the BSD kernel) make it much more enjoyable and friendly experience. You're going to be spending a lot of time in the next few years pouring your soul into your laptop, choose one that makes you the happiest (for me, that was a Mac).

As for the Windows/Linux issue, I would usually do most of my programming at the computer lab or through SSH into a server. The primary reason for this was to be consistent with the grading rubrics used by the institution. With that in mind, your need for windows or linux is generally fairly limited.