I have always owned Macs. Right now I have a MacBook, an iMac, and a dual processor G4 that is about 10 years old. The G4 is running EXACTLY the same operating system as the 2 newer Macs with no problem. The only thing I can't do, is run Bootcamp, which allows you to run Windows in a native environment rather than emulated.
I recently went back to school and one of my required courses was a Microsoft course. The only program that I couldn't run on the Mac was Access. Not only did I get an A+ in the course, but a letter of recommendation from the professor. Plus she thanked me for opening her eyes to the fact that Macs will do anything you can do on a PC, especially now on the Intel Macs.
As far as price goes. When I bought the MacBook, I orignally bought a PC laptop, and had nothing but problems with it. After a week I returned it and got the MacBook. When it came down to it, the MacBook actually cost less since everything is already there. The wireless card, built in WebCam, Superdrive, etc.
So in the long run if you are buying new anyway, get the Mac. It will last longer, have less bugs and if the school INSISTS you run windows and you own a copy of it, no problam. You can run windows natively with either bootcamp or parallel. Plus there is another program out there whose escapes me right now that will allow you to run PC software on your Mac without running windows. I think it is called Crossover but I can't be sure of that.
Dollar for dollar, headache for headache, lifespan and ease of use, the Mac is by far the better choice and even if you don't need to upgrade a PC to meet what is already on a Mac the Mac will probably only cost you about $60 more at full retail. But since you are buying for a student, there is a place on Apple's website that allows you to register as a student and with that discount it is actually cheaper. If you want to save a little more. Keep your eyes on Apples's refurbished. They are sold with the same warranty, support and software as brand new. Actually most of them are brand new but because they were sold and returned cannot be sold as new. I bought a 1299 MacBook for 799 that way and there is no difference or way of telling that is refurbished except for the price and the invoice.
Hope that answers some of your questions in plain english. No geek speek, or IT speek, but as an everyday user.