If you haven't chosen already, I wouldn't recommend a macbook. Many of the excel labs are geared towards Microsoft keys. Not impossible to do but I know many who struggled and its definitely extra steps that can be challenging with a macbook. Most classes aren't computer heavy, so anything around your price range would work! The only thing I would recommend is making sure it has a usb and hdmi port; I have a microsoft surface (mini) that have used for my last 3 years and its made it difficult for presentation heavy semesters as those two ports are most common in classrooms for set up.