MacBook Air – 8 GB or 16 GB? M2 or M3?

Hi all,

My daughter is about to start grad school and asked me last night about a “new” laptop. She’s interested in a MacBook Air, so I started doing some research. I’m looking at refurbs as well as new machines. I have three questions:

For a science-based grad degree, do you think an M3 would bring significant gains over an M2? I don’t think she’s going to be doing anything super-involved, but I don’t know for sure. She mainly uses an iPad for note-taking, etc.

Also, it seems harder to find refurb MBA’s with 16 GB RAM at a good price point. For MacOS, does the extra 8 GB bring a lot to the table, a la Windows, where 16 GB is the minimum spec for a machine in today’s world?

Do you think M2’s and M3’s will drop in price given that the M4’s are supposed to be announced this week?

Thanks for the input!

Bob