American math and science education is a mess. I know a guy who came to America after going to school in the basements of bombed out buildings during the Lebanese civil war. He was better prepared for college than American high school students of the same age.

Making the switch from a Windows PC to a Mac isn´t nearly as daunting as it might seem. Most of your files, including photos, music and Microsoft Office documents, will open on your Mac without any conversion (although you will need to buy the Mac version of Microsoft Office). And Mac OS X´s interface is pretty intuitive (just remember: Finder is the Mac equivalent to Window´s Explorer).