What kind of engineering student? I will be an ME major next fall and have been very specifically instructed to not go apple silicon because of compatibility issues. Make sure your program works with MacOS.
The difference between the M2 air and M3 Pro is minimal. Its like 15% better performance in the best scenario possible, which is unlikely. The money is better spent on buying a higher end refurbished machine or upgrading the ram and/or SSD of the Air.