I have a laptop, but I was wondering what the best one is for college? Thank you!
What’s your major? Almost every student I have seen uses a laptop and they take them to class. My son’s university puts out a list of computer requirements every spring and they guarantee there will be no upgrading required for four years. Check with your college catalog or call the department your major is under. A nice new laptop is a very practical graduation gift.
After freshman year my DD came home looking for a smaller laptop. We’d bought her a nice new 15" for graduation, and while she loved everything about it, it turned out to be awkward on the little arm desks she was facing in several of her classrooms. Luckily we were shopping for a new home machine at the time, so we took the 15" for the old people in the kitchen and got her a 13" with better screen resolution. All’s happy at this point.
Regarding the"best", it’s going to depend on who you are. If you’re me you tend to be large, strong, inattentive and glancing off of door jambs and the occasional desk or chair. There will also be dropping. If you’re like my DD you are careful, coordinated and thoughtful, and correspondingly less likely to be dropping things, or spilling things, or needing the same level of robustness and warrantee coverage in an appliance. If you are in CS or engineering, or many of the newer art majors that work in music or film, you may need more horsepower than a history major who is mostly going to be on the web or writing. If your eyes are good you can use the smaller screens, but if you need to have multiple screens open for debugging or editing, or you watch a lot of movies, or you just prefer it, then get a larger screen. If you’re small then give serious consideration to not carrying the extra weight around and go small. Simple stuff, but lots of ways to slice it.
Oh, and read a lot of reviews about the specific machine you are contemplating. Amazon has heaps. Just keep in mind that the same Dell XPS that’s been accumulating reviews for many years gets a very substantial redesign every year and issues arise and relent from age to age. Last year’s wonky power supply might be this year’s weak hinge. Then go sit in front of one and type, and open the top, and sit with it on your knees and type, and read the websites you go to, and see how long it takes to wake up, and generally look for whatever bothers you or you’ve liked about machines you’ve used in the past. And if you’ve got one nearby, the Microsoft store will have machines from several vendors that are usually pretty affordable that you can lay hands on.
The one constant I am recommending these days, however, is upgrading the video from 720 to 1080. It makes everything better, from more beautiful images and movies to reducing eye strain when simply reading.
Special Education is my major and I know I’ll have to write a lot of papers. I have a laptop now, but I’d like to have a desktop to write papers on and concentrate better with! Thank you for all of the good advice!
I believe you can connect your laptop to a TV as a monitor and use a separate desk top keyboard for the best of both worlds.
For a student, there’s no need to have a desktop. In fact, you might not even need a full laptop. With Google Drive, almost any student can get away with having a Chromebook. And YES, if you have a small TV in your dorm, you can simply plug your laptop into a TV, plug a mouse and keyboard into your laptop and you have a desktop! You can also get a wireless printer and turn your desk into a full work station. You likely won’t need a printer anyway because everything can be uploaded directly to your professors. If you need to go to class, just unplug everything and take your laptop with you.
DD already owns a laptop. We are considering adding a USB C hub with keyboard and monitor so the same computer can double as a desktop. The main drawback is space. Dorm desks are small so there would barely be room for reading in such a setup.
Man. I hope kids today realize how lucky they have it. When I was in school a friend had a true “lap top.” It was the size of a suit case and if you left it on your lap too long you cut off circulation to your legs. 
So any advantage/disadvantage to the tablets (surface, Ipad) or the hybrids that do both laptop and tablet?
The Windows hybrid laptop/tablet devices have a weight and balance issue. There is almost no hardware in the detachable keyboard and the monitor side is heavy. There is a kickstand on the back of the tablet to make it sit up on a desk, but it is hard to use on a lap. The iPad Pro is lighter for easier use as a tablet than most windows devices, but you need to make sure it runs everything you want, and with keyboard it’s still better on a desk or table. My kiddo uses her standard laptop on the go, including a longish bus ride to school.
In your case a small(ish) laptop is probably your best bet. Windows or Mac based on your preferences. I agree with the idea of getting a larger screen for your desk. Add a usb keyboard and mouse and you have a nice workspace. If you get a laptop with HD video capability your large screen can also be used to watch movies.
In some cases, for some students (my son a CS student for instance), a separate desktop could come in handy, but if all you need is to write papers, presentations, etc you should be fine with a laptop.
I would take the laptop you have and see if it is adequate for what you need. Is it too heavy? Does it have a big enough hard drive? Are you doing heavy graphics/development?
Thank you so much for all your help!