As someone who went through an engineering program, I'd strongly advise against getting a Mac. If I remember correctly, they don't have Solidworks for OS X which means you'll be messing with Boot Camp or something like Parallels. I burnt up my MacBook Pro using those types of programs via Boot Camp, and halfway through college had to buy a new laptop. I can honestly say my Lenovo has been way nicer than my MacBook Pro was at under half of what the Mac cost me, without the severe cooling issues I dealt with for years on the Mac. Unless exterior appeal is really that worthwhile to you, you can get something more powerful that will be easier for you to use at a much lower price going Windows. Even if it is, a lot of companies are catching up on the whole aluminum body thing.
If you're really set on Apple, you want to go with the MacBook Pro. I don't think you can get a quad core processor on the air, which you'll probably want for programs like SolidWorks, and the graphics options are far better on the Pro. As someone who went through this exact situation and saw both 'sides' of the issue, I would just strongly encourage you to explore other options.
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