My brother just graduated highschool and will be going to Virginia Tech. Apparently he has to have a laptop with certain requirements and the one in their catelog is $1600. I was thinking that's a lot for a laptop. But, maybe because I'm used top buying my laptops used/refurbished and not paying over $400.
Computer isn't a language I speak but I know we have all sorts of smarts on this forum. I know GRM can find something just as good if not better for less. Its the GRM way!
Below is what they require.
Ooof, that's a hell of a laptop specification. I found one for under $1100 that just misses on the processor (i5-6200u vs i5-6300u) but meets the other requirements: Dell Latitude 3000-series
Dell prices may get better with academic pricing, so that helps too. But basically you are looking at Dell/Lenovo/HP ultrabooks with those requirements.
I asked a friend who buys laptops for his engineering firm and he recommended
Lenovo ThinkPad P40 Yoga Mobile easily beyond my scope of understanding 
Congrats to your brother! What type of engineering?
VT has pretty high requirements for computers and they are strict on the incoming freshmen having one that meets the requirements. One thing they are trying to do with that is to ensure it isn't obsolete before he graduates so he doesn't have to buy a replacement while in school. Another thing to consider is warranty or temporary replacement if something goes bad with it. In the past the ones that were purchased through the school had a warranty and loaner/backup availability, not sure if that is still the case but if so it's much easier to walk across campus and go to IT Services than find a ride, find a computer store, wait for them to check it out, get it fixed, etc all the while having to beg borrow or find an available computer in a lab somewhere at 3 am to get an assignment done...
Not that I've had any experiences like that...
What size screen does he want? Is a stylus definitely required?
If he's doing CAD work he's is going to want a dedicated GPU. Any idea what the requirement is there?
MSI gaming laptops with 7th gen I7s, a dedicated GPU (Nvidia 10xx series), and a good sized SSD can be had for a grand on Newegg.
Or buy a lower spec one without an SSD, clone the drive on to one and swap it.
Generally they don't have a stylus though. That seems like an odd requirement.
For those specs $1600 isn't terrible. That's pretty serious hardware to stuff into a laptop.
In reply to secretariata:
I'm not sure what kind I think aeronautical. My mom works for NASA and got him in this engineering program they have for teen's on their summer break. He did that for the last two years and enjoyed it.
I might just go ahead and buy him the Lenovo thinkpad. The reviews are excellent and VT book store has a decent deal on them.
If it's financially viable, I'd try and exceed those specs, at least for the processor (you can always add memory and hard drive space). The better machine you buy now, the longer it will stay current.
Up the processes to the most you can afford and I have found that what ever size hard drive you think you need double it.
For processor I selected:
"Intel Core i7-6600U Processor (4MB Cache, up to 3.40GHz)"
And hard drive I selected:
"512 GB Solid State Drive, SATA3"
Those were the highest specs I could select.
You can get a Dell Inspiron 17" 2 in 1 that meets those specs for around $1000, with a real video card. My wife has a 15" 2 in 1 Insprion, and I really like it. It works well as a laptop, and the tablet mode is still handy for reading, websurfing, etc.
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-17-7779-2-in-1-laptop/dncwscb6113h
For an engineering student, a Dell Precision is a good bet, but you are going to pay a premium. I use a Precision with onboard Quadro for CAD, Matlab, Rendering, etc. @ work and they hold up very well. Enough that if I was considering a laptop for a primary machine at home that's what I'd be looking at.
I would absolutely be considering the following to go with the laptop if possible: A real docking station, a good monitor mount, dual 22" or greater monitors, and of course KB/Mouse. The difference in productivity is absolutely astounding. You can piece this together for ~$500, and it will be worth every damn penny, and then some. This stuff doesn't go obsolete nearly as fast... I've had the same mount and dual 22" screens for 9 years now.
As Gameboy said, its powerful hardware to stuff into a laptop. Its going to cost a fair amount. Its also a small fraction of the cost of going to college for 4 years and not a great place to cut corners to save a few bucks.
Note: I ignored the stylus requirement. That's a super weird requirement unless going for some sort of design degree. I don't see why it would be needed as an engineering student, business, etc.
