The hardest part about spending is knowing when to stop.
If your goal is to always have the latest and generally best Apple tech, you are doing it right. None of your bullets make a case for not being able to accomplish light workloads.
Absolutely. Yeah I’m an on-again off-again eBay shopper and seller. I won’t spend regrettable money on anyone below 30 or so reviews.
Do you need 512GB and £59? If you can use external, NAS or iCloud get the new one.
If anything, I think you would have been better served with a M2/8GB/512GB MBA. Especially if you can find it lightly used.
And by better served I mean keep more money in you pocket. When I was in college (cue breeze and flashback music) I had more time than money. So what if your project converges/completes in 45 minutes instead of 25? And you had to try it 6 times?
But that student loan interest will follow you around for a long time. Or even worse, you take on a part time job and start trading away the most unique period of your life (maybe even GPA) at an abysmal rate. ($15/hr now versus $50/hr after a quality graduation).
If this isn’t your main machine and portability is your number 1 factor, why upgrade now? Yes you’re feeling a RAM crunch when you travel, but if everything else is good, then wait.
Why didn’t you ask about just trading up to a larger RAM M2 air? Is there something about the pro (screen size, 120hz, graphics cores) that you are also eyeing? A lot of the price premium you are going to pay will be for features you didn’t mention, and they will make up that half pound extra weight.
All that said, I’m sure the M3 pro will be a great upgrade for you. I guess I’m asking, “what’s the rush?”