Used Macbook Pros for college

Hi we will be buying our first Mac product for our son who is going for an Music Performance major at college.  The College is an  big Mac place and there is lots of Macs in the Performing Arts center, computer labs in the dorms.   We are in sticker shock looking at new prices, so we are exploring used and refurbish MBP's, but we don't know just how old we should be looking for.  We think we should not be looking for anything older than Mid 2012 since this needs to last him for 4 years.  Can we go older or try to buy the newest in our budget?
LJD

I also recommend the Apple refurb site. MacBook Pros are in high demand for the "cool" factor and there are a lot of ripoff deals out there.
As notebook computers tend to get a lot of abuse, buying one used is a real risk. Like buying a used off-road vehicle, you don't know which mud-bog it's been stuck in!
We have many direct-from-Apple refurbs in our family of Macs and all have given excellent service.
I have this one, bought last June:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD101LL/A/refurbished-133-inch-macBook-pro-25g hz-dual-core-intel-i5
I love it. It is a real workhorse, the price is right, and you get an optical drive that si not present in the Retina models. My son bought the same model, and a friend bought two, all refurb 2012 models. That version does not show up much in these forums as a "problem child."

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