I've had luck with some Asus models that are clearly aping Apple's design style. They aren't quite up to the level of a MBP in terms of build quality but they can cost half as much for similar specs.
I picked one up this summer with an i7, 16GB RAM, nVidia GTX 760M, and a 1920x1080 display. Strong points are the aluminum frame, Apple-like multitouch trackpad, backlit chiclet keyboard, and fairly high specs for a $1k laptop.
Weaknesses compared to a MBP are that the bottom of the laptop is not aluminum (but does offer easy access to RAM slots and battery), the display is inferior to Apple's in terms of viewing angles, and the aluminum top is fairly thin so you can see it dimple slightly if you push on it with a decent amount of force.
For my uses, I was fine with sacrificing a slight amount of durability and viewing angle to get that level of components for under a grand but your dad may or may not find it worth the sacrifice. They had updated the model last time I was at Microcenter but still keep that $900-1000 price range, just an updated CPU and GPU as far as I can tell.
edit: this is the sort of thing I'm talking about - http://www.microcenter.com/product/438186/N551JK-MH71_156_La...
Also, I forgot to mention, the other "con" is it comes with a HDD instead of a SSD. For the things I do on this laptop, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make and I believe I can add one later if I so choose. Your results may vary and the list of things I considered small "cons" might be things your dad really doesn't want to do without and may be willing to pay another $1500 for in a MBP.