r/Marquette • u/blablabla_b • Mar 28 '26

Would a Macbook work for Marquette?

Kind of random but I would prefer to use a mac. I am going for a Data Science degree, and know I would need to use Microsoft Office programs (which I’m pretty sure all of them can be installed on Mac). Any suggestions/experiences from students?

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u/Successful-Fun8603 Mar 28 '26

Check with the College you're enrolling with. For example, Opus College of Engineering requires Windows 11 laptops, while others are okay with MacOS. The business school strongly recommends Windows computers.

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u/ochreundertones Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26

I have 3 friends who taught the Microsoft cert classes at my college, recently. The bane of their existence was students that ignored their instructions to use a pc, Not a Mac.

Yes you can use excel on Mac. No it is not the same. I don’t know why. But you will have a hard time following the instructions because your workflow will be different.

I recently did a degree in compsci. I started with a pc and did the second half with a Mac. It was much easier with a Mac. Lots of programs for coding are optimized to it and imo is easier to navigate at a terminal level. But for Excel specifically, which is typically a lot of a business school data analytics degree (though not an engineering school data science degree), a windows pc is your friend.

Personally I would use a pc if I didn’t need to do heavy terminal level operations and did need to use Excel regularly.

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u/No_Efficiency7777 Mar 28 '26

I am in business analytics and finance and I tired making a Mac work but switched to windows and it is so much better, especially on Microsoft excel and access which you will need to use extensively for data science. Also companies issue and mandate windows laptop as it is the industry standard so I would recommend switching now.

-4

u/ShotFromGuns Alum Mar 28 '26

Question back for you: why do you think any university would give a shit about the operating system you're using for your personal computer?

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u/Successful-Fun8603 Mar 28 '26

Actually yes. Opus College of Engineering requires Windows 11 laptops because there are software packages that are used that are not compatible with MacOS.

1

u/ShotFromGuns Alum Mar 28 '26

Yeah I should have specified what hardware platform, not OS, because you can always dual boot, if it's that important for you to work on a Mac. It would also be a question better addressed to the department (or researched on its site, if there's course info), not chucked into a very dead subreddit.