I had to get a new Personal Computer a few months back. I had bought 5 Dells (2 for family and 3 for kids) in the past 7 years. I loved them, but had always wanted an Apple. Could not get one because I did some work at home so needed to have "compatible with work PC's". Now that I have retired, I started to look at Apples. I also decided to replace the desktop with a Laptop. We do travel a lot more now and having ones computer is becoming useful if not essential. A big screen Laptop was my solution. It would serve as a Desktop at home and was actually a laptop My research discovered that for the same specs the Apple was twice as expensive. I had to have Office for Mac and perhaps XP for Mac which added costs to the Apple. I bought the 17" Dell Notebook with Vista. Returned it and dont get me going on that! Long story short I bought the MacBook Pro 17". Apples are better than PC's! That does not mean they have NO Problems as suggested by many. They do have significantly less problems and they are cooler. But if you have a question on the Apple, you only have a 90 day period to call them! I have called Dell about my PC's 5 years later and their service is still excellent. Now, should you buy an Apple 17" MacBook Pro? If I had to do it all over again, I would buy the 15.4". It is really portable. The 17" is portable more in theory than practice. It is Big and not as easy to lug around. And, I say this in spite of the fact that I have not really carried it around. Only from the car to homes and hotels and travelling by air. I think a 15.4" is the right laptop for you especially if you are a student. Later if you think the 15.4" screen is too small, get a larger monitor for home. Merry Christmas! Hope this helps.