Jet:
The Compaq X1000/HPZT3000 (and also business HPnx7000) triad are great Pentium M notebooks for college. They weigh 6.5 pounds and the A/C adaptor is lightweight as well if you need to carry that. They have the 15.4" widescreen which is great for a better viewing angle from the sides, more of a spreadsheet viewable, and of course watching widescreen DVD's. It gets 3.5 to 4 hours of battery life using wi-fi all the time or DVD's or more if not using wi-fi but less is playing intense games or using other programs that access the hard drive alot.
These are part of the consumer line of notebooks so they are not as tough as the IBM or Toshiba Tecra (business, Satelite is consumer) lines or the Fujitsu toughbook as Bob says but I assume you are going to use a decent notebook backpack (like a Targus or Port or Samsonite) to carry it around.
Please go to X1000forums.com to view all the extra discounts you can get for these machines (APP student discount, $100 rebate for all HP/Compaq custom notebooks right now (but have to get this PDF file from main screen of HPshopping as the order page shows $30 or $50 rebate), possible $100 coupon (if ordering ZT3000 right now), 3% cash back if ordering through Fatcash, etc (see the forums).
I have the X1360US (1.4 Pentium M Banias) and I have been happy with it.
If you do end up ordering one of these follow these guidelines:
1) Order at least the 1.6 Pentium M (Dothan) CPU. These just came out recently and have double the L2 system cache of the 705 (Banias) 1.5 Pentium M. Also, do not order the Celeron Pentium M 1.3 ---- please ...
2) You can not upgrade the video memory. You have the choice of the 32mb dedicated or 64mb dedicated video from the ATI 9200 card. It is only $50 more custom to add the 64mb if you think you will play some games or use other intense programs like AUTOCAD, etc. I have the 32mb and it is ok for me but most people ordering custom get the 64mb.
3) This is where to save money to get the 2 above .. order only 256mb of system RAM from HP/Compaq (to fill 1 slot) then add 512mb more yourself from Crucial, etc for about $100 or $256mb more for a little more than half of that. You will save money this way --get at least 512mb in the end
A faster hard drive is nice if you will be using a lot of programs (standard is a slow 4200 rpm hard drive -- if you order the 5400 rpm hard drive custom you will get about 50% better performance -- some people who are willing to do a conversion themself order the cheapest hard drive 4200 --30mb and then get a screaming fast 7200 rpm hard drive on their own. But the 5400 rpm hard drive is a good option if you want to have it up front.
4) You most likely only need the CD-RW/DVD ROM drive. The DVD burner costs $200 more .. you can always add an external DVD burner that will perform better for less later (USB or firewire) if desired.
I bought a prebuilt that has the 4200 rpm 60mb hard drive and the 32gb dedicated video but if I had ordered custom I would have upgraded those 2.
With all the discounts and stuff I mentioned above, you can definitely spend under $1500 and even closer to $1,000 if you get the smaller memory and hard drive now. Make sure you order through the APP (student discount) at a minimum.
See x1000forums.com for all you need to consider.
The keyboard is very good (only IBM's are really better in this class) and the notebook runs nearly silently (fan does not come on in normal use -only with DVD playing/ CD burning/ high hard drive use, etc.
I also recommend the Toshiba M35S456 (or you can order custom online as M30) also for an alternative.
Getting the 1.6 Pentium M Dothan is a great starting point for value and performance (and buying less memory as it is always marked up from any notebook manufacturer).
Just remember to carefully consider the video memory as it cannot be upgraded and don't buy a notebook with integrated video (Intel chip on motherboard) as it is slower and takes memory away from your system RAM (dedicated has its own memory on the card).