7th gen vs 8th gen cpu on Macbook pro for student

[CrimSoul]

I am helping with choosing a laptop for my sister. She decided on getting a 13" Macbook Pro. We were thinking about getting the 8th gen i5, but it is a bit pricey. We were wondering if it was worth the jump in price, or if the 7th gen i5 was enough for her.
She will be using all the Microsoft Office programs (mainly Excel, Word, and PowerPoint) and may run multiple programs and browser tabs at the same time, nothing really too CPU intensive. She has no interest in the touch bar.

our choices are:
7th gen i5 - $1249 ($1049 through student discount at Best Buy)
7th gen i7 - $1449
8th gen i5 - $1699

(using pricing on the apple education store)

All 3 have 8gb ram, can upgrade to 16gb for $180 on apple store prices. Other options aren't very important for us.

I was thinking the lowest model would be enough for her, but I don't have much experience with the current MacOS and would love to have other people's input. We would like to have a fairly smooth experience without much slowdowns.

 

[profoundnoah]

As long as the MacBook has 8GB of RAM, an SSD, and a processor that isn't 8 years old, your sister will greatly enjoy it. The 8th gen i5 would only make a marginal difference for her use case and is DEFINITELY not worth the extra $600 compared to the i5 version, considering you could upgrade it to 16GB of RAM if necessary.

 

[velocityg4]

Keep in mind you can't upgrade a Macbook at all. So, get everything you'll need. I assume you'll want this to last all through university.

RAM: Max it out. MacOS loves RAM and everything is getting more RAM intensive. Make sure it is 16GB. This will make a huge difference in useful life.

SSD: I'd get 256GB SSD as a bare minimum. She'll probably store some photos and videos. Who knows what sort of projects she'll need to work on. There is always the chance she will need to install Windows using Bootcamp or a VM. Not much of a chance. Still 128GB is way too small. Considering the non-upgradeability and roomy budget. I'd actually say get 512GB.

CPU: Depends on the degree. Not too important for most any college work. Maybe a few specialty degrees it would matter once you start Masters or Doctorate courses. Not for undergraduate work. That being said the 8th gen is a lot faster. It would probably have a longer useful life but I would consider 16GB RAM the priority and at least 250GB SSD. After that an 8th gen i5 then 500GB SSD.

iCloud: I assume she has an iPhone. Upgrade the iCloud storage. That way she can store all her documents on iCloud. With that and all the sync options enabled she could keep everything she needs saved on iCloud. Relegating the need to keep a backup hard drive. It can also reduce storage demands having optimize library enabled in Photos.