If its your first year of college and you live on campus, I'd honestly probably recommend you doing your own research and getting a chromebook. Most of them are tiny enough to fit on any desk/in your backpack. You can use google drive for whatever essays/powerpoints you need to do and then any other softwares I would just go to the library/computer lab to get your work done. I usually bring my computer to uni and use that for programming in Visual Studio and download any other class specific programs I need, and then use the computer labs for Photoshop 3DS Max, or whatever artsy fartsy class im taking.
The huge benefit of Chromebooks are how quick it will boot up, it wont get too hot because there isn't really much running in the background, and most of them are less than $400. People really overlook them and spend $2k on their macbooks just to watch netflix and write papers because "I like apple" or they just want to be able to use iMessage in class.
edit: I would just like to add I walked dogs in highschool to save up $300 and I bought the Acer c720p Chromebook with a touchscreen and have had it for almost 4-5 years now and it still runs like a champ. I have dropped and abused it and was able to replace the screen for $20.