rMBP for college?

So I'm in the market for a laptop for college. I'm undecided but I plan on either software engineering or comp. sci. I've narrowed down my choices to two retina MacBook Pros, the specs of each as followed:

2.6 GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5,
8GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
256GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
Priced at $1,399

2.8 GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5
8GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
Priced at $1,699

My biggest selling point is, mainly, the storage space. I plan on either dual booting Windows with BootCamp or using a VM to run Windows. The processor isn't much of a factor, as I've gotten by on 2.4 GHz on my Lenovo Y500 comfortably for the past two years. So my question is, will the 256 GB SSD be sufficient for 4 years at college? Or should I save up for to get the model with 512 GBs? Also, as an alternative to buying the 512 GB SSD model, will using the 256 GB SSD for mainly programs and what not while storing most of my files on a 1 TB external HDD be a good idea? the $1,699 is just a bit out of my budget, while $1,399 is a little more feasible.

 

I will assume your degree involves classes you don't predict to be Windows-centric.

If your degree is going to involve a lot of CAD or CAD-like things, the extra storage and CPU may help, as you're gonna be chewing it up. You may even want to spring for the 16GB model in this case.

If you're doing something less tech-centric and you just need something for documents and presentations, either solution would suffice, as you can always survive the length of the term and just offload everything to the external for archive.

 

I would go with the 512 and even then depending on how much media you have it might not be enough. The 512 is a decent option and if down the road turns out to not be enough you could always grab an external for dirt cheap. 1tb WD passports go for 55 bucks here and there if you look around.

 

Well, if you're fine with an external drive for mass storage, the internal drive doesn't really matter too much and getting the cheaper option would be ideal. As for the CPU, the 200Mhz difference is trivial and you really won't notice the difference outside of synthetic benchmarks.

However, personally I don't see a reason to get either unless your degree has any OSX-specific courses, such as iOS development. And if you're going to be using Windows more than OSX, it seems like a waste to get a rMBP. At least in the CS program I'm in, the CS department is 100% Linux and most of the students either have a Linux VM on their laptops or just install Linux over Windows.