For a laptop for a student - absolutely. Laptops get damaged, a lot.. and repair costs are generally very, very high (and your local tech geek can't generally help you much.)
That being said... order from the manufacturer, do not buy from Best Buy, etc. The employees lie their butts off and don't have a clue what they're doing.
Also.... at this point, Gateway is probably better than Dell (unless you're willing to get a Mac - which I'd certainly suggest :grins
but Dell has had so many recalls and do such a horrible job anymore. If someone asked me 6 years ago which company to go with, I'd say Dell... but these days it just seems to be crap.
The Gateway convertible tablets are very nice, however. My brother's had one for about 3 years now... And my old Dell (9 yrs ago) lasted 7 years... But the dell my brother had before the gateway had to be sent back 4 times, and then died one last time the day after the warranty expired.
It's really a crapshoot. But whatever you do, I'd avoid buying them at a retail store if you can. The last time I bought one I was lied to regarding about 4 different things that ended up costing me about $400. Also, you can generally get some nice educational discounts buying from the big companies.