Laptop suggestions

Hi everyone,

First of all I'll like to say that I'm new to this community so apologies if I make any errors or so. Let's jump in to the topic, I am going to university next year studying a design degree and I'm looking for a laptop to carry around the campus probably taking notes in lectures and such. One thing that I want to mention is that I'm not staying at the campus long term since I would be going back home everyday since it's close by.

Budget would be in the 2500 range, that's in New Zealand Dollar by the way and yes I live in New Zealand. Preferably a MacBook since they are quite common in the design industry? I'm currently looking at the high spec 11 inch i7 MacBook Air with 128GB SSD for portability and a 15 inch base model i7 MacBook Pro with high res anti-glare option for my design needs perhaps? Both machines are within budget it's just a matter of which machine suits better. I'm pretty much stuck between portability and performance.

Since I usually return to my country every few years I could get a few hundred bucks of at the Apple Store in Hong Kong. Because there's no sales tax back there meaning lower prices. If possible with education discount which means that I could get a higher end model. Any suggestion are welcome.

Thank you for your time,