Tablets are just toys to me. They can not handle the work load like Laptops and Desktops and do not have the storage capacity you will end up needing. Having a laptop and tablet isn't bad if you have the money. Also, be careful if you go tablet, into be sold on the idea of the cloud. If the cloud is down you do not have access to what you need. All the cloud is a remote puter that helps with your work load and saves your work for you. It is great for syncing devices but too many times have I had someone complained that they could not access something because they could not access there cloud provider when they needed to. Make sure you have a good backup plan onsite for all your data and files your going to accumulate during school.
If your serious and need the best reliability you can get, then go Laptop.
These HP can be customized to what you need, Bump the APU and ram for better performance. They would be consider good all around laptops. One is $30 above your price point but worth it.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C9W57AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000fb8mNv9y;sid=NID2W1inOb6JXwkRbh2qz4GoAJwzDmy78dUe8LW2AJwzDtPc7Kuhl6jI?HP-ENVY-15z-j000-Notebook-PC A8-5550M APU HD 8000 Series Graphics 6GB DDR3 750GB 5400 rpm HD Starting at $530
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/D1H55AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000fb8mNv9y;sid=NID2W1inOb6JXwkRbh2qz4GoAJwzDmy78dUe8LW2AJwzDtPc7Kuhl6jI?HP-Pavilion-17z-e000-Notebook-PC A4-5000 APU HD 8330G 4GB DDR3 500GB 5400 rpm HD Starting at $450 Your choice of 4 colors
Brand buying advise
You get what you pay for. Systems with high end parts with low prices are to be viewed with suspicion. They have to cut corners somewhere to get the price down. What cost you less today is going to cost you more tomorrow.
Apple makes a good quality laptop. The problem comes when it requires service or minor upgrades. It is near impossible to do anything with them. They even glue the battery and hard drive down so you can not change it. They solder the ram to the logic board so you can not increase it. They lock up most of the software so your stuck with what they approve.
Lenovo has serious stand behind their product problems. They bought IBM PC division and proceeded to drive the quality of the system into the ground. Their customer service is well below par. They even makes Dell customer service look good. The last and final thing to remember about them is they are a Chinese Government own company. It is up to you if you want to trust them.
Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony should be avoided because of their heavy modification of Windows and the drivers. If you remove some of the bloat they install, you can cripple the system.
Acer, Gateway, and eMachines should be avoided period. Low end system that are driving the race to the bottom.
Dell once made a good system and fell from grace. They are now struggling to regain their place in the market. Customer service is one of many problems with this company.
Alienware are glorified Dells and are more name then product. Priced extremely high for what you get. They do perform but you can get the same for less by looking around, just not packaged to be eye candy to the gamers.
Samsung has a history of using cheap parts in critical areas. Capacitors has been one area Samsung has a known history of going cheap, causing units to fail early. For that reason I would avoid them.
ASUS and HP do not modify Windows as bad as the other manufacturers. They have excellent build quality. They might add a lot of bloat but they also makes it easy to get rid of it.
Ultrabooks are the higher end of Wintel laptops but they have some of the same concerns as Apple. They make it next to impossible to change any hardware in them. Service of them will have to be done by the manufacturers. With most of them, you can not change your own battery or hard drive. They are designed to catch your eye but they are not any more special then other laptops except for the fact that they are slim or thin. Your paying for it being thin and slim. For the money your going to spend on it you can buy a much better laptop with more power.
Hybrids are the worse of the worse. The flip or detachable touch screens are just a disaster waiting to happen.
Never buy an All In One. They are far worst then laptops of any kind to service and they have a higher failure rate.
Choose wisely.