Apologies in advance as I'm relatively tech illiterate, so may be a dumb question -
I'll be headed to business school this fall, and I am currently without a laptop (had a Macbook Pro 13" from college but has since died). The question is, what do people recommend? I do like the Macbook Air as it's super light and relatively small, and I can see that having the most value to me post-MBA as the Apple interface is great.
However, I also expect to be using Excel / PPT extensively for school (incl. extensive financial modeling), and obviously shortcuts and things like that are challenging with an Apple product. I understand you can partition the hard-drive (if that's even the correct term?) and that may help, as would having a standard PC keyboard that you can plug in... or would I better off buying a decent PC laptop?
Fundamentally, the main issue is ability to model / use Office products on Mac. Anyone with some tech savvy or experience using a Mac to build out models care to opine? Appreciate it!
Just get a PC. Mac sucks and shortcut keys are wack.
Plus, ribbon composition in Excel for Mac is completely different. They have a "palette" or something stupid and tedious like that.
Get a PC. Looking around the classroom, there's roughly a 50:50 split of Macs vs PCs. However, most of the Mac people I've talked to wish they had gone with a PC. Many of them had Macs for personal use before bschool. They have since realized that working in PPT and Excel is not as easy on a Mac as it was on their work PCs.
Excel on Mac in Terrible, absolutely terrible. I sold my iMac and got a PC after I got fed-up dealing with the damn excel on Mac. On top of that incompatibility is still an issue with macs in the business world.
Save your money, get a PC, or don't and get a much more powerful PC that costs the same as a slow Mac.
Edit
Anyone have experience with using bootcamp & windows on a mac? So not running a windows virtual machine, but partitioning the hd and booting up windows. is the keyboard of a mac substantially different or pose issues in that scenario?
Graduating from MBA in 3 months. All external software works best on PC. Mac-users regularly complain about a lack of functionality.
I had a Mac in school... but once I started in Finance I realized how dumb that was. Not only is it difficult to log in remotely but the shortcuts are different and therefor my production is at least half of what it would be at the office
I would recommend a PC for all the post-MBA roles typically espoused by the WSO crowd, but feel I should play devil's advocate for a sec here. If you are at all considering a post-MBA role in the tech sector, know that pretty much all the startup roles and the sexiest corp roles in the industry use Apple products. I'm assuming you're not going that route given that you're asking this on WSO, but also know that that path is pretty en vogue right now.
Until the past few years or so, it was PC all the way in b-school (disclaimer: I'm a Mac guy).
However, that is changing.
It comes down to what you anticipate your major or courseload to be. If you're planning on taking a ton of finance electives (or more quantitative, Excel-heavy electives) - then go with a PC. Excel is okay for the Mac and it won't affect your productivity in most b-school classes where you'll be putting together basic spreadsheets, but again if you're taking some modeling intensive classes, you'll find that Excel for PC to be easier to work with.
If you see yourself taking more marketing, strategy, org behavior, etc. electives, then it won't really make much difference between a Mac and PC. These tend to be more case method based, or group projects where most of the work will be presentational (reports, charts, powerpoint decks, rudimentary spreadsheet work, etc).
If you are unsure, or you are indifferent between a Mac and PC, then go with a PC for b-school.
Mind you, for those out there who already have a Mac and you don't want to buy another computer for school, you can simply run Parallels (software costs around $70 or so) which allows you to run Windows on your Mac (I've done that, and it works fine). It basically turns your Mac into a dual-boot system, and all your Windows files are stored in just one folder on your Mac. Especially if you're in b-school, software like Parallels, Windows 7 (unless if you really want 8), and MS-Office suites are offered to you at an educational (discounted) price.
In your case, I would probably suggest the cheapest PC build you can get away with just for b-school, and then once you graduate, you can switch back to Macs if you wish. In b-school, the most CPU intensive things are big spreadsheets and macros, so you won't notice a big difference in performance between the lowest end CPU vs.the fastest. With PCs, where it gets expensive is building out a system for gaming or media (sound/video production). For the purposes of everyday computing (b-school academics included), just get the most RAM you can afford, whether you go Mac or PC - because it's your RAM that will likely impact performance more than CPU or GPU with everyday tasks.
Hey there - realize I'm quite late on this post - but could you please elaborate on using Parallels, and how it worked for you? Someone below said it was quite difficult for his spouse. 1) Did you use the same excel and modeling shortcuts on the Mac keyboard that you would for a PC, since you ran parallels? 2) Did you find the difference in keyboard to be an issue?
I have a new Mac but will begin the B school experience soon. Plan on doing heavy modeling. If running Parallels on Mac don't solve the problem, thinking it could be worth it to buy a second laptop...
My wife is finishing b-school this May and has had a Mac the whole time. She has regretted it from Day 1, even though she has taken very few finance courses and hasn't had to do much in Excel. Beyond the huge inferiority of Excel, I think the PowerPoint functionality is at best different, and likely worse. Plus, Parallels, for whatever reason, barely works on her computer (Windows runs incredibly slowly).
I will be using a PC at school this fall, although I also have no choice.
Genuinely curious about how having a spouse in B School works. Does she go to B School in the same city you work? I remember you will be going to B School soon, so will you again be in the same city?
You should do a post on this.
Hey there - a bit late on this post but your comment on Macs/parallels stood out. Could you please elaborate on why parallels didn't work well for your wife? Did it allow her to use the same shortcuts as PC, or no? What was the issue when you say "barely works"? Just an issue of processing same, or was she not able to adopt some PC functionalities. Would be useful to know as I am considering purchasing a PC though unfortunately bought a Mac a while back before thinking this through. Thanks in advance.
Thanks, all - PC it is (and as noted by several others, at a sizable discount to a Mac yet comparable in terms of performance).
PC or MAC? (Originally Posted: 05/03/2012)
Hello, A quick question: Which one do i-bankers use? PC or MAC?
PC.
If you've ever used Excel for Mac you'll understand.
Exactly, most worthless piece of shit ever. takes everything five times longer and can never find anything.
PS, OP nice name bro
PC
For the same exact reason. I had a group partner in college break down in tears as she had to do her Excel work on her Mac. Mac's are fun but function over form for me
Both. Don't be cheap
I have Boot Camp on my Mac for the sole purpose of using Excel.
Excel for Mac is the Jon Snow of the Office family.
Build a desktop, pirate Windows 7 Ultimate, pirate Office 2010 pro, save a couple grand.
Or, just buy a PC laptop and still save over a grand.
I don't only use Windows. I prefer the OS X interface, but need to use Excel for classwork. I was saying the only reason I have Boot Camp is to use Excel, Excel for Mac sucks that badly.
Was able to get Windows and Office for dirt cheap at my school. Works for me.
So, why is it that you are paying for the Software in scenario 1 and pirating it in scenario 2?
Regardless, the days when hardware mattered are gone for 99% of users. I use my computers for xls, ppt, web, email. Occasionally a big model or FDS refresh will slow down my work computer, but I can usually solve that by sending to India and having them slog through it. The most intensive thing my computer usually does is stream last.fm
SEC might have just explained why Excel for Mac is the way it is to me. Thanks
PC is the way to go in terms of excel. By a Vaio from Sony if you want the 'prestige' factor
Tru dat. I heard Allen & Co. and Qatalyst exclusively use Vaio. Their employees would never to lay a finger on low-grade bucket shop equipment like hp or Dell
PC>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Mac
the fuckng lag on parallel windows ugh. esp wen ur working on a large excel document with macros and shit.
the real question is...what does the Apple finance department use?
for the love of god I'd hope pc. that'd be the most miserable job if its otherwise
If you're in finance and work in excel at home, definitely go with a PC.
If you're not in finance, go with a pc. Macs are overpriced by nearly 2x.
Any bets on why computer IP has? I'm betting a 4-year old Acer...
Thinkpads
For fucks sake they all use Thinkpads
My guess for IP's computer is an eMachines refurb
We went MAC 2 years ago, not ever going back. Some difficulties w Excel conversions, but workable if you know what you are doing.
MAC or PC for Finance (Originally Posted: 06/24/2013)
Somewhat of a side topic, and unsure where to post -- if you work in finance, and want to retain the ability to use Excel/VBA fully functionally on your personal laptop from time to time, would a MAC suffice or is PC still somewhat mandatory for that task?
I'm talking about using Excel shortcuts without limitations, VBA scripting, etc.
Please advise!
@krypton Will definitely answer, although I don’t think it’s interesting enough to be a post.
For background, we got engaged right before my wife started b-school, and married between her first and second year. We do live in the same city, so I can’t speak to what it’s like to do a long distance relationship or anything like that, and we will be moving to the same “city” (Hanover, NH) for my time in school.
I feel like having a spouse in b-school is sort of like any other relationship where both partners have busy, demanding, and often different schedules. I don’t think b-school is any different to any other busy job. Honestly, I haven’t thought of it as a very big deal as the partner, but am definitely thinking about it more now that I will be the student. On that note, the one in school will be really busy, especially first year. The demands are a bit different from a standard job, but if you basically assume a 12-14 hour day at work for your wife, then it’s not all that weird.
We did not have to move for her school, so that made it easy. We both already worked in the city we live in, and when she chose to go to school here, that definitely removed a tough Decision Point for what was a non-married or engaged relationship. I would have moved with her, but that definitely would have been much different (I may not have had friends there, possibly a different job, etc.). I also am a consultant, and travel ~50% of the time, so that’s another factor that makes it a bit easier (or harder, depending on how you look at it).
I will say that it definitely added to my schedule. There are a ton of school events/happy hours/other things that I didn’t go to all of, but definitely went to some of when I could. It also meant some tutoring, since I was a business/accounting major undergrad. I probably spent a few hours a week going through accounting, a bit of finance, and general PowerPoint/Excel features with her, not to mention reviewing projects/papers and such. I tend to enjoy doing that sort of thing (I guess that’s why I enjoy posting on here), so I doubt all couples are like that, but was something that made me much more busy.
I always planned to go to b-school, and actually delayed applying for a year so that she would be done when I went (another Decision Point). For my school choice, it was basically a two-person decision. As you may have read, I picked Tuck over two city schools, which means very different career options and experiences for her. While it was ultimately my decision, and not one that I would put on her, I certainly made it clear before both applying and signing on the dotted line that she could veto. She did not, and in the end, I think is the more excited about this move than she would have been for New York or Boston. I’ve written elsewhere about the merits of Tuck for a married student, so I won’t go too much into that, but I actually found it to be the best fit for my situation.
In the end, I don’t really see business school as all that much different from any couple where both parties have careers and are career oriented. Throughout life, you and your spouse will likely be faced with decisions, from new jobs to more hours/travel to moves to pay raises to not working. Everyone picks and chooses what works best for them and their spouse based on what they value. I certainly do emphasize making it as much of a joint process as possible if you’re the one applying and going, while also being sure to own it in the end.
PM me for more details, as I don’t want to hijack this thread too much. Didn’t want to get too specific on here, and also didn’t want to run on anymore than I already have.
Haha. Thanks man. No further explanation necessary.
Was just curios.
From what I understand it's PC hands down. But MACs are so cool. Currently deciding on what to buy for college.
Do not get a Mac, had an advanced excel class in school where one day of the week, we had to go to the Mac lab (due to room scheduling conflicts) and it was an absolute nightmare trying to navigate everything in MAC. Stick to PC, I currenlty have a Mac from college and am planning on switching soon so that I can do work from home since we get remote desktop access.
Regards
Even though Macs are much better for private use, in the corporate landscape a PC is still the better way to go.
Get a mac and use VMWare when needed. Hands down.
PC, I'd never dish the money for a MAC just because they're so expensive. It's all going to be junk in a few years. Buy something cheap but functional, learn how to take care of it (really easy), upgrade memory or HD yourself, prolong it's battery life.
If money is no issue, PC is still best for office.
Mac. Just Boot Camp into Windows for Excel / Powerpoint and enjoy OSX for everything else.
qft
If you want to retain full excel functionality get a PC. I have a macbook air for personal use and tried to do the whole VMware/bootcamp route, didn't work out well. Personally I'd just get both and just use the PC for work.
For those using Mac or VMWare for Excel, can you do quick shortcuts like ALT I R, ALT O C W, ALT W F F, etc? If I can't use shortcuts in Excel, it'd be almost useless to me.
Thank you all for the replies
Maybe it's a regional thing here, but a pretty sizable proportion of my network rocks the combo Macbook Air with high-powered PC workstation at home. Besides, usually roles that actively require you to work on the go (significant traveling, etc.) will provide a company laptop optimized to your firm's servers anyway.
As someone who also learned on Excel '03, I salute you sir. We're becoming a dying breed...
I use both a 5-year-old Apple MacBook Pro and a brand new Windows 10 laptop. After several months of using them simultaneously, here's my take.
• If I need to do "intense" MS Office work, I will only do that on the Windows machine … the range of MS Office-for-Windows ribbon commands is much more vast, the MS Office Windows keyboard shortcuts are essential to save time, and Wall Street grade plugins are only available for the Windows version. Bottom line, if your work is Wall Street-facing, a Windows machine is the way to go.
• But, that said … my Windows laptop's keyboard is ergonomically blah.
• Worse, the Windows 10 operating system's UI feels like a compromise-OS-by-committee, an outdated and unfinished mashup of a desktop OS and a mobile OS. I was expecting far better from Windows. So now the only thing I use the PC for, is to run heavyweight Microsoft Office tasks.
• OneDrive is a Microsoft cloud space where you may end up being required to store work documents. Surprisingly, even though Microsoft developed OneDrive, the OneDrive software interface on a Windows machine is ridiculously bad. Yet Apple's OneDrive interface is light years better. Makes no sense.
• Any other task or activity, I swivel my office chair and happily work on my Mac at the other side of my desk. The day-to-day ergonomics of using the Apple laptop are 1000% better. The Apple software ecosystem is far better integrated.
• And when I need to run a simple task in MS Office, such as a basic internal-use-only spreadsheet or a simple Word letter, more and more I tend do those on the Apple machine. Even though I can't access the Windows MS Office power-user keyboard shortcuts, it's ergonomically way more comfortable on the Apple machine.
Definitely use a PC. My big mistake was to get a Mac after being a long time PC user and have regretted that purchase ever since. I have Office 2011 for Mac, which has the version of Excel with VBA. That's probably the only thing that saves that Excel version. Moreover, when you format a spreadsheet in Mac Excel, the formatting doesn't hold when someone opens the same file in PC Excel. That can get embarrassing, as people would think you don't know how to perform basic formatting.
PC Excel with VBA is substantially more powerful. I use VMWare to access Windows and Excel. Some keyboard shortcuts do not work or have to be accessed with slight modifications.
The biggest challenge is the keyboard layout for shortcuts. I have both Mac and PC at home. I travel with my Macbook Air and use Teamviewer to use my PC remotely as needed.
If you are a heavy shortcut user you will ALWAYS hit the wrong key combos when you switch keyboards. FWIW I would buy both as @"hopefulbanker99" said.
I just started running Windows Excel on a macbook air with Parallels after seeing that you can customize it so that 2003 excel shortcuts can work. To those of you who have been running this setup for a while and have keyboard customizations dialed in, would you mind sharing those? It would take a while to go through it one by one. Thanks in advance.
PC. no brainer.
Mac Owner. PC user at work.
I'm a Mac owner myself, but it's proven to be somewhat of a hindrance when working on large modeling projects because Microsoft programs just aren't as efficient as they are on a PC (for obvious reasons). I've taken to using PCs for anything finance or work related, and suggest you do the same. It'll make life easier.
Personal Experience, going through an MBA right now. Those in the class with Mac's are limited in using some of the excel add-ons and plug-ins, if you ever use those.
Macbook or PC for VC analyst? (Originally Posted: 12/13/2013)
Whats more appropriate for day-to-day VC analyst tasks - Mac or Win7/8? Looks like Mac is great to stay on the technological edge and have fun, while not limit the scope of work performed by VC analyst.
Finished an MBA program last year. Have been at two Fortune 500 companies (Entertainment industry) over the past couple years, including now, and startups.
If you can swing both then get it. PC for Excel, and Keynote for Mac. I used a Mac almost exclusively throughout B-school. As a data analyst now I go back and forth between the two, but my whole team is on Macs now and all of our presentations are on Keynote.
We should seriously find a way to limit the number of "what computer should I get" threads.
That said, get a Mac if you want a computer you won't have to worry about. Put Windows on it and you've got the best of both.
Don't listen to this. As a VC analyst you're going to be cranking in excel 24/7. Def don't want to be trying to figure out mac short cuts. The only people who will tell you to go the apple route are total company fanboys.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/232498399485957784/
+1 Internets
If you need to do serious Excel work get a PC. Otherwise get a Mac. From what I've seen, later stage growth guys tend to have PCs and early stage guys tend have Macs.
I think as much as Mac might look 'good' for a college-going guy, when it comes to Finance: a good PC is much more handy. Nonetheless, most of the legit companies hand out a work laptop themselves.
And in any case, like fellow forum members suggest, one can always boot Windows on a Mac as well.
You should get a PC.
PC vs Mac (Originally Posted: 07/20/2014)
I am looking to buy a new laptop and am torn on whether to get a PC or mac. Seems like each pc laptop has one issue going on with it. However, one reason I am putting macs at the bottom of my list is because of excel. I have not used a mac in 4 years. Has excel gotten more friendly with macs, specifically the shortcuts?
Also, aside from macs, I would like an opinion on some good lightweight, 13", and high resolution laptops.
Thanks,
I have a mac and will be switching to PC later this year before I start FT work, in large part because of excel but also because I want to have publisher (and don't have it on my mac).
I'm getting a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 - tablet/laptop combo, looks awesome, and runs excel etc. I'm not a gamer so don't need a super powerful laptop, so this one suits me well.
What is your opinion on those attachable plastic keyboards? I have never used one but it seems like it could become annoying.
Point of the last statement was to say Surface Pro 3 could be a great laptop for you if you want a lightweight, 13" high resolution machine
What's your budget? If you would be okay with spending upwards of $3k on a MBP then what I would do is take $1k and custom build a Desktop PC and then the rest on a refurbished 2012 MBP. That's what I did and it really is the best of both worlds.
I already have a custom built desktop but I still want something where I can do heavy excel work while I am sitting on my couch watching a movie. I read that MBP's have slow processing with excel (which will suck with monte carlo simulations) unless you switch parallels. However, does parallels let you use the same shortcuts as a PC or are you still limited by the mac shortcuts? (eg: f2 edit cell shortcut)
I owned a mac throughout college and can honestly say that my grades were negatively impacted because of it. Bootcamp and Parallels slowed my computer down too much, so every time I needed to use Excel I had to borrow a PC or go to the lab. Especially as a finance major, you do way to much on excel for the Mac version to be useful. That being said I've never had a problem with my Mac, and if it had the same Excel version as a PC I would rather own one any day of the week.
I am leaving my job soon and taking almost a month off work. I have been using my business laptop as a personal so its time to invest in one for myself. I run a lot of excel for personal use as well. I have models for sports gambling and for investing. They need good processing in excel, so I am really hesitant on making that mac purchase. If my new job gives me a laptop, I would like to have separate computers for business and personal (it became very annoying mixing files and the extra security my business laptop has).
if u have any dignity/shred of PC knowledge, get a PC
only get a mac if you want ppl to watch you type up your senior thesis in starbux
Could not agree more
Check out the Dell XPS 13. I have the 15 inch model and it's a great machine (battery life is meh but that's it). Great screen as well. I would imagine the 13 inch would have better battery life especially given it has an SSD
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