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The package:
Office Home and Student 2007 - Windows (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8129447&type=product&id=11583209 98618&IcsCsid=39-409-2-24172-0-7354-815-0-4 - broken link)
Make sure to get good antivirus software (I've heard that Norton 360 sucks). When I went to college most people's computers were infected a few minutes after connecting to the university's network. Just ask the sales person what's recommended.
17" laptops are like carrying a sheet of plywood on your back. It gets old quick.
A lot of schools have their own deals with computer manufacturers and can get students great deals. You may be better to wait to get her a laptop until she is on campus and can get such a deal. You can look that up beforehand though and do the comparison shopping. Keep this in mind for software as well. The university that I went to for grad school had a deal with Microsoft that allowed me to by the office suite for $5. If I bought it elsewhere that was going to cost me at least $75.
Depending on what is offered by the university I would consider buying a netbook for portability, a quality external hard drive for back up, and a decent desktop (or monitor, full size keyboard, and numeric pad) for home use.
I use an enormous amount of processing power for my work and I've yet to find any decent computer that can't handle the load. What I have seen though is cheap laptops plagued with hardware problems that have hard drive or motherboard crashes. Recovering data afterwards is much more expensive then the computer was worth. Back up everything frequently.
I have to agree with DrJoey. 17" laptops are ludicrous. I'd save that size for entertainment/gaming purposes. Your standard 14.7" shall do it and just get a software program.
Also, looking at DrJoeys advice, I stopped by the campus I will taking classes and found much better deals there than Best Buy... so it'd be wise to check out the campus first.
If you can offord it get the 15 inch MacBook Pro, you can get the price lowered by using the student discounts that Apple offers.
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