I own a lot of computers. The best desktop for the money is a Dell, in my opinion, but only if running windows XP. A laptop sounds great, but studying in a dorm room ain’t a bad idea...full size keyboard, all that jazz...and they won’t “walk away” with someone else...XP with SP 3 is out and they are stable as can be. If you will be using older software, you might have compatability issues (still) with Vista. Windows claims the new version will be out at Christmas.
My personal laptop is a 17” Toshiba with XP and killer graphics for web work (I travel a lot) but I am a pretty big guy and don’t mind carrying it - it is HEAVY...it has never failed me - but I am not a kid in college. Take care of them and they will be great...the school deal might be your best bet...
Someone in another thread purchased a laptop a few weeks back and they posted a link. I grabbed the link for a ‘just in case’.
http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/satellite/A300/A305-S6905