You can get a mil spec beast desktop from @Xi for cheaper than any performance laptop.
Laptops are always more expensive than similarly configured desktops. Portability isn’t free.
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That’s the point. You get a bloated, not quite powerful enough laptop, when the best option is to have a beast desktop and a light laptop. I’ve been down this road with a kid that does heavy computational stuff. The people that have to have beast laptops are rare and determined by their inability to access desktops on remote work sites. I
For some students, the combination of a powerful desktop and light laptop (why not an iPad or MS Surface instead of a light laptop in that case?) may be best. For others, a powerful laptop does everything they need. The laptops I linked above are almost as powerful as any desktop you can buy.
Granted, not every student needs such a poweful laptop (or the combination of powerful desktop and light laptop). For some students, espeically ones who need to work with very large data sets, they may need one of these two solutions. I didn’t provide my S initially with one of these solutions when he went to college, but he asked for it before his freshman year was over (that was when I started doing my own research on this topic).
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There’s another issue with the powerful desktop solution. If your kid is like mine, who wants/needs to travel with his machine (e.g. internships or home coming) but doesn’t want to put the machine in a checked bag, these equivalent powerful desktops are all too big to fit in any carry-on.
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Not even remotely close. @Xi, the company that made my son’s first laptop, that will still likely come close to any you listed, 6 years later (It has a the top of the line at the time i7 quadcore, 64G, 1T SSD and a Quadro) has a desktop machine with 2 quad core Xenons, 512 RAM, 2 Quadros, and 2 8T SSDs for roughly $40K. You can build LOTS of steps between the specs you listed and the most powerful desktops available today.
The reality is that students can remote in for most of their distant power needs.
What you described is called a workstation. Workstations are distinct from PCs, or Personal Computers (laptops or desktops). They’re meant for commercial/professional use and they price accordingly. They certainly aren’t meant for students as their general purpose computers, even if they can afford them (or justify their cost).
The fact is the majority of students don’t need some ultra grand computer. There are plenty of perfectly good laptops available that have been spoken about above.
For engineering I got my son an XPS 15 with an i7 processor, 16gb ram, a 512gb sad drive and an upgraded video card. It’s exactly what was recommended by his school. He has been very happy with it. This is more than most students in many other majors will ever need.
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These are your words not mine. Workstations and PCs are both desktop computers. The difference is that workstations are generally enterprise or even milspec quality, purpose built, without unnecessary bloat, more robust, and more powerful.
The laptop you referenced is a gaming computer, not appreciably different than an entry level portable workstation with the exception of intent of use and thus graphics card. Like portable workstations, the reviews say the battery life is bad. That means bringing the transformer. Maybe it’s smaller, but my son’s transformer weighed about the same as his MacBook Air.
Now, hopefully, you understand my argument. Even gaming laptops are not enough more powerful for CS and Engineering that they make up for the weight penalty and small screen. Believe me. I’ve been there before.
If a student has to have a 17” (15” should be more than adequate for nearly everyone), they can get what my network engineer uses, an LG Gram. They’re 3 pounds.
Lively! Here’s my $0.02.
I think that just about any laptop that a student wants will get them through an engineering degree. So, get what you want after understanding any school recommendations.
That said, many students want (and can afford more) and that’s where all the laptop/desktop/workstation opinions come in. One thing students need to be aware of is that many engineering disciplines benefit from more powerful platforms because the applications they run require certain capabilities. However, CS is different in that in addition to sometimes benefiting from being able to run applications that require more horsepower (simulation programs) they actually want to write their own code to take advantage of their hardware CPU, memory, storage, GPU. Additionally, if you are interested in developing AI/ML models there are considerations in what HW you have (again totally optional). This, I think, is where things get complicated.
So, if you are interested in AI/ML can you benefit from a laptop with an Nvidia GPU? Yes, because you can write your own Cuda code or use Tensorflow to take advantage of the GPU and train your model significantly less time than if you are limited to using a CPU only. But, even the GPUs on gamer laptops rapidly run out of power when more ambitious AI/ML models are attempted so many students look to desktops with more powerful Nvidia GPUs. But even then many students will want more.
My son currently has a desktop with two Nvidia Titan RTX cards and Two Titan Xp cards just for GPUs (prob over $8k just in GPUs). I wont go into the rest of the platform but it’s insane (liquid cooled).
Again, all you need is a good laptop. Some students can benefit from more powerful standard configuration to run certain engineering applications. Other students can benefit from more non-standard configuration that they can program directly.
Clear as mud?
Wow, that sounds heavy to carry around all day. 
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My daughter’s internship is providing her with a laptop, so don’t be surprised if many companies provide these.
As for others re laptops, your kids don’t really need anything super powerful unless maybe they need something because they’re a gamer. We found that the computers the schools recommended were about 4x more expensive than what we could get at Costco that met the requirements (one in Engineering one in Business) that met the needs of the program and with using the Costco Citicard we also got an extended warranty. What we learned is that we could buy a new computer every year and still come out cheaper than if we bought the ones the school stores were pushing us towards. Two years in and no problems yet. One still uses a macbook, the other has that and the PC since her program required it.
I’m fine with him playing some games, if he finds time to do so, as long as he continues to get “perfect” grades at every class that he takes at his college (commonly recognized as one of the most challenging). I don’t even ask because I trust that he can manage his time. BTW, the “gaming” machine isn’t for internships or even classes. It’s primarily for other research projects he works on.
I personally use Acer Swift 3 (AMD) 14 inches; 1920x1080, RAM: 8GB Storage: 512GB SSD Weight: 2.7 pounds, Amazing battery life
Powerful performance and also is Affordable, its keyboard is great for typing out term papers, with quiet, clicky keys that won’t irritate your roommate.
Even I’m doing a degree at University. I didn’t have the option of buying a new laptop at a full amount so I decided to buy a refurbished laptop for everyday use at college for a major purpose like PPT, Excel, google sheets, and many more, you can’t expect too much like gaming, illustrator. A refurbished laptop from Xfurbish is really the best choice and I recommend to buy.