What laptop or tablet would be best for college?

I'm looking into laptops or tablets for when I go away to college and wanted an opinion on what to do. I'm going to study business. I was very interested in the 13' Macbook Pro with an iPad 2 for notes to take in class, and even substitute for books on some apps. However, they are both extremely expensive and I wanted to know if there were any good PC alternatives to these.