[lnb21]

I'm currently looking into getting either a 13" or 15" MBP for my engineering degree. I was planning on setting up boot camp so that I can use some software that is only available on Windows. I will be using multiple engineering programs such as Solidworks, MatLab, LabView and rendering programs. When I have researched 13" vs 15" people always talk about 15" being suitable for video editing but surely I need these high specs for these CAD programs too?
Another possibility would be to just suck it up and get a Windows laptop like the Dell XPS seeing as I need Windows for some of these computer programs. However, I have a 13" MBP now that I've had since early 2011 and it's just worked a dream. All my Dells before that had a 1 yr life span...
What do you guys recommend?

[TwitchyPuppy]

Definitely the 15”!

[Quis89]

For the best performance, I'd go with the 15 inch. You'd be able to do everything you're wanting on a 13 inch pro and you probably wouldn't notice any issues. But as the computer ages, it'd probably be best to start with the most spec'd out model you can afford.

[lnb21]

So would you say the lowest spec 15" MBP with upgrades storage to 512 GB is best? I would get the standard 256 GB normally but if I'm going to have Windows installed too I feel like I need more?

[Quis89]

So would you say the lowest spec 15" MBP with upgrades storage to 512 GB is best? I would get the standard 256 GB normally but if I'm going to have Windows installed too I feel like I need more?

I'd say you'd be fine with that. Good decision to upgrade the storage. You're going to be partitioning your hard drive so it's best to get as much storage as you can afford considering you'll be splitting that storage between to operating systems.

[Abu Khadija]

If your bootcamping with windows I would get the one with the Radeon 560.

[TripleOne]

15"!
You'll appreciate the bigger display

[lnb21]

Abu Khadija, if I had the money I'd max it out everywhere, but I have to stop somewhere...
Hopefully the Radeon 555 will suffice

[Abu Khadija]

Hopefully. I bought mine at Best Buy. I would think if your buying from the Apple Store, $100 more than you could have the 560 and still have the 2.8 and 256.