Sooo, I've been doing a ton of research because I'm also worried about spending too much on something that might die in two years. I'm still kinda figuring this out, but I'd suggest looking at a few different paths. If you want pure power for the price, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) GA403 with AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS 32GB RAM 1TB SSD is actually pretty insane, but honestly, it can get REALLY hot if you're compiling all day... so make sure to get a cooling pad or something. If you're worried about reliability like I am, maybe consider the Framework Laptop 13 DIY Edition with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H. It's cool because you can replace parts yourself if they break, so it feels way safer for a four-year degree. Or, if you prefer Mac, look for a deal on the Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M3 chip 8-core CPU 10-core GPU 16GB RAM 512GB SSD. It lacks a fan though, so dont push it too hard with those VMs lol. I mean, I think the Framework is probably the smartest choice for a student budget in the long run. gl!!

i would suggest the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 5 AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 32GB RAM 512GB SSD for those VMs. linux support is basically perfect, but yeah, watch those thermals tho!

yo, i feel u on that. back in my junior year, my old rig literally started smoking while i was training a small model and running docker simultaneously. i eventually switched to the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M3 Pro chip 11-core CPU 14-core GPU 18GB RAM 512GB SSD and honestly, it's been the best dev machine i've ever owned for school. here are my tips for choosing:
1. get at least 18gb of ram... running multiple vms and heavy ides will eat through 16gb faster than you think.
2. prioritize the m-series silicon for battery; i get a full day of coding on campus without hunting for outlets. the unix environment is lowkey essential for cs toolchains and it basically just works without the headache of configuring stuff. lesson learned: dont skimp on memory or you'll regret it by senior year projects. peace