Hello,
I am a college student looking for a new laptop. I am studying electrical engineering for the next 2-4 years, and want to find a computer that will be useful for the duration my program. I have a separate computer for gaming, so that is not a consideration. Budget isn’t an issue for me, but I’d prefer something priced reasonably.
First make sure you know what operating system you need, a lot of software only works on either mac or windows. If you can use mac os, an m series mac air/pro is probably your best bet, you can't really beat em in terms of efficiency and battery life. Otherwise a thinkpad/xps are some of the better windows options, just make sure you research and compare the cpu's, the naming schemes for them are really confusing, also check that it has at least 16gb of ram and enough storage.
Purchase a laptop that supports Windows 11 if you’re not looking to buy a MacBook. Try not to buy a laptop that can’t support Windows 11 or else you’ll run into security issues.
i had to replace my computer recently. i use a lenovo yoga 9 which i quite like aside from the ai features. a lot of my friends who are in stem use computers with open source hardware though such as framework or mnt (though i've heard some dicey things about the politics of framework's ceo), especially because those are easy to run linux on.
Thinkpads. Those things felt like an actual indestructible brick. They really are the Nokia of the laptop world. You could probably run one over with a car or spill an entire drink on the keyboard. use it as a lethal blunt instrument for self-defense and it would still boot up fine. you could literally crack walnuts with it or use it as an emergency doorstop during the apocalypse.
They're affordable and upgradable. replacing the parts are easy 
It's unfortunate modern Thinkpads moved away from the design. but alas, companies move on to other things.
Thinkpad ✖
Tankpad ✅
I'd recommend looking at second hand business machines, especially if you're ok with using Linux. Thinkpad T480 and T480s are both the GOAT of Thinkpads, and they are extremely basic and lean - no gimmicks or crap, just pure l a p t o p.
I used to daily drive one till I moved onto using a Panasonic Let's Note SV1. also an amazing second hand business class laptop, looks so Y2K and has a DVD drive and VGA port and everything, plus almost deceptively light and portable but is really rugged despite feeling cheap, but are a bit pricey since they're from Japan and have gotten popular with collectors.
honestly just look at Lenovo Thinkpads, HP EliteBook/ProBooks, Dell Latitudes, maybe even Microsoft Surfaces if touchscreen is a priority, laptops that are produced in fleets for businesses to give on mass. they tend to be really basic, focused on nothing but performance, ease of use, sometimes even repairability given they're provided in fleets, and most importantly, they focus heavily on reliability. as someone who's been through way more laptops than the average person, this classification of laptop, when bought second hand, will give the best value for money.
hope this helps!
edit: epic photos
Thinkpad T480 (my former daily)
Thinkpad T480s (the slimmer version of the T480)
Let's Note SV1 (my new daily)
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