Oh man, congrats on starting CS! Honestly, you dont need to drop two grand to survive your classes. I did my whole degree on a machine that cost way less than that. Macs are solid for coding since they run a Unix-based OS, but Windows is totally fine now too thanks to WSL. If you want the best bang for your buck, look for something with at least 16GB of RAM so you dont cry when running virtual machines! Check these out:

• Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M2 8GB RAM 256GB SSD (sometimes on sale for under 900 bucks!)
• Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 Ryzen 5 16GB RAM 512GB SSD Just grab something with a decent keyboard because you will be typing A LOT. Good luck, you're gonna kill it!

Hey there. Saw this thread while scrolling today and honestly, I gotta weigh in. I went through a bunch of machines during my degree and had some pretty rough luck with a few brands that just fell apart after a year of heavy use. Unfortunately, most of the entry-level options people push these days feel like they were built with scotch tape and plastic dreams. I really wouldn't bank on anything that feels too flimsy because those ports start failing when you're moving between lecture halls constantly. Before you go dropping your entire budget, are you planning on running any heavy virtualization or local servers for your classes? That changes things a lot regarding RAM requirements. If you just need a reliable workhorse, I actually had way better luck with the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 16GB RAM than any of the flashy ultrabooks that cost twice as much. The build quality is decent and the keyboard is miles better than the shallow stuff you see on most modern laptops. Sometimes you can find them refurbished too, which saves a ton of cash for books or coffee. Just be careful with the sales pitches you see online. A lot of those cheap, budget-friendly models have screens that are barely readable under fluorescent lights, which is a nightmare for coding at night. You definitely want an IPS panel at the very least. Lmk what you're leaning toward so far?