Advice on a laptop?

Hi paulkersey.... I don't do much with laptops, but the size, whether 13", 15" or 17" would depend on how portable you need it.    If you hike from one end of the campus to another, the smaller might save some work.

The internals.... the difference between the stage 1 and stage 3, for example, on the 13" is double the ram and a cpu processor with a little faster clock speed and larger cache.   Your 3d modeling might run a little smoother and quicker with the added ram and cache.

The more you can spend, the larger the screen, faster the video card, etc.

Others should be by with better info for you.

Good luck.

Trying to explain exactly how system ram, video card vram, cpu clock speed and how it works with every program is way beyond the scope of the forum.   Basically, a 3d modelling program, depending on the level you do, will use lots of system ram to manipulate the data you are processing.   The more ram the easier the task.    Vram, the amount of ram on a video card, is used to process and display , render, the info the system ram has processed.    A sli, 2x video card rig, is used to quickly display a game where the two cards mirror, share, the same info, to help render the info to the screen.     Whats 30 fps with a single card struggling to display a heavy shooter, for example, will display 50-60 fps with a dual card setup.

The difference in performance between 3.4 and3.8 can be seen but you'll pay for it. Not huge but a small degree.     The difference in cache size, 6 to 8 for example, can help if into heavy apps, but again, adds to the cost.   Chip makers charge alot for the higher clock and cache.      

I would stress the 16gb ram, a clock speed you can afford, being in college canstretch the wallet, and a single card unless you're into maxed out gaming.

Just me.    Others might differ.    Money talks.

no more advice ehh?

Heya @paulkersey,
Greetings and welcome to the forums.
I am gonna agree -w- everything that fstcvc has said before. the rig that I am having built will be doing a little bit of everything along with using Maya,Mudbox,Painter 12,Sketchbook proo and many others so I went -w- 32gb of ram to begin and probably will add another 32 gb to that in the coming months. I am also powering a Dell U3014 30" 2560x1600 monitor and an Asus 27" HD monitor as well as a Wacom Cintiq 24HD Graphics screen.anything pushing large amopunts of data around (such as 3d rendering)
needs a huge amount of ram to keep from making a big hit on your cpu (so more cores,faster processor) is needed in the CPU area as well.then of course yer gonna need the graphics engine to plow thru it all so the bigger the better thereas well.
I know it's a lot of info but those are pretty much the guidelines for your chosen area of study.hope it all helps and if you have more questions don't hesitate to throw em out here and we'll all try and help ya .
John

lol I don't think there are any laptops you can fit 64 gb of ram into (there may be a few but none come to mind atm).I was only putting those figures out there so you would have a bit of reference. the figures are those of the desktop DS is building for me right now. Rendering and all that takes up Ram,Processor cores and threads so get as much of both that you can within your given system (in your case the laptop).

In your top end CPU's you will find that they have a function called "Hyper Threading" these are basically virtualized cores .so if you have a 4 core cpu you then also have 8 virtual cores or "Threads" all of which greatly enhance the compute power of the cpu.if your were to have a 6 core cpu you would then have 12 virtual cores ie . more is better when it comes to graphics,3dvirtualisation and rendering. hhope all that made sence to ya bud.   

Thanx @bpratt22 for fillen in there realized I might have confused the situation after I hit post yer brother.

by the godz I hope so virtual threads, virtual OS and such are always a bit dicey to explain (especially after a couple of bourbon's)

It does make sense, thanks!