If you're going to college, you're not going to want something too inexpensive with limited options on your laptop. I'm a college student now too, and I got a Dell Inspiron 1520 (which I paid a bit over $1000 for). I regret buying it however. If you want a good computer, which you'll have for a while, I advise that you go with any Apple Laptop. the Macs are the best.

Don't buy something that you'll have to replace next year. That, or buy a desktop which you'll spend less money on, and just write all your notes in class in notebooks.