There's a good chance that e-textbooks are not going to factor a whole lot into your college experience. Like I said before, as of right now, images tend to be low quality and charts and graphs don't look great (and they're usually given in the form of those low-quality images). Since you're thinking of going into a scientific field, it will probably harder for you to find the textbooks you need and even if they exist, you may prefer the paper edition for studying. Fjtorres pointed out that there haven't been any real success stories for e-textbooks on campus, yet. Amazon partnered with five schools that decided to try out the Kindle DX in the classroom. Most students said it was nice to have a lighter book bag but studying on the Kindle was kind of a pain in the ass. So your decision should not hinge on textbook availability, but I thought it might at least be worth considering. You might wind up finding some books for some gen ed courses and saving a little money. Just don't bank on it.
If you learn how to strip DRM, you can put any ebooks from anywhere on the Kindle. There is, of course, an ethical question here. It is technically illegal to circumvent encryption protecting intellectual property, but it's pretty inconsequential. If you keep the books to yourself, then the fact that you've done it is virtually undetectable. So it really is pretty much just an ethical question. Epub is more frequently becoming the popular format for digital libraries. Sans DRM, the program Calibre can convert a number of formats, including epub, into Kindle's mobipocket format. I don't think anyone should be limited by their hardware or software if they can use alternative methods to put otherwise legal content on it. If you ultimately decide that the Kindle's hardware is better for you than the Nook, I don't think you should be put off by a lack of library access because you can easily find a solution to that problem on Google.
That being said, I did point out that I'm biased. I definitely think you should go to a B&N store (if you have any around where you live) and play with the Nook on display. See if you are bothered by typing on the touchscreen at all. Some people don't mind it a bit and they really like that they can browse their library by book cover in color. Just know that with the Kindle's tactile buttons, you may be able to navigate a bit faster. Definitions also come up a lot faster because the Kindle allows a preview of the definition to pop up at the bottom or top of the page, which usually suffices. The Nook takes more time to pull up the full definition each time. My point about better readers coming out in the not-too-distant future still stands, of course. Just some things for you to consider.
