I am an engineering student andI need to run the program Abaqus on my Mac but it only runs on windows. What is the best way to solve this problem. Should I download a program that allows me to run windows and then download Abaqus or is there a better way?

First find out from your instructor if your Mac will be required to connect to any specialized hardware during your courses, if so you might have to buy a Windows 7 machine.

Just because a Mac can run Windows 7 in BootCamp or any Windows in virtual machine software, doesn't mean the hardware inside the Mac is generic PC compatible with exterior specialized hardware.

If your good to go, then investigate the hardware performance requirements of the softwares your going to use in Windows 7.

For instance BootCamp is more prone to problems and harder to resolve than virtual machine software that will run Windows in a window in OS X, however BootCamp provides more performance than virtual machine software.

Virtual machine software is far easier to use, as you boot once into OS X and launch Windows like a program, also it's easier to revert to malware free versions provided you make regular snapshots to fall back onto.

Good thing is you can use both, install BootCamp first and use VMFusion or Parallels Desktop to "copy" the BootCamped Windows to use in OS X.

This way you can use the OS X/Windows online and for riskier purposes and the BootCamp/Windows for offline/performance needs.

Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?

You can install windows via bootcamp or use a virtual machine software such as Parallels.