[Foster]

I'm partial to Lenovo's, I use them for work and I buy my own. Presently year three on a T60 that's worked out well. The prior Lenovo (actually a Thinkpad) worked well the prior 3 years.

Three things to look at:
How heavy is it? - You are lugging it across campus, after awhile the weight does make a difference. I had a really nice 17" that returned after three days of lugging it around NYC. So your 15" size is going to be a good choice.

Power connector / Power brick. Make sure that the power brick will do multiple voltages and you can get cables for the country of choice. You may not need it but being able too makes life easy.

Buy the laptop with the biggest power connector going into the laptop. They are under huge stress, I've lost motherboards in the past due to small connectors snapping off. Make sure it comes out the back so you can use the laptop on your lap.

Lastly, USB is your friend. Get a laptop that has 3 USB connections, hopefully on both sides. Make sure they are powered so you can plug in external drives.

Like I said at the start I've been very happy with the Lenovo's we've had.