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I think that a Macbook Pro or a Macbook Air would be great for a university student. The Air in particular, with its light weight, is fantastic for taking to the library or to classes, and it has a great battery life, so bringing a charger isn't always necessary. I have a Macbook Pro, but I wish that I had purchased an Air - while the Pro isn't terribly heavy on its own I do feel the added weight when i through a book into my bag as well. Either lap top can be connected to an external screen if you ever need a larger screen when working.
An iPad is a nice added device to have. It is great for reading PDFs and class notes. My husband studies on my iPad daily, as his professors tend to post their class notes and power point projections. I have the Apple bluetooth keyboard, which is a fully sized keyboard which can be used with my laptop as well, and it is a dream to type on. One certainly could type an essay in a program like Pages with the keyboard with no problem. I find the iPad especially useful when doing light editing. I don't think that it is necessarily essential. It is a great added learning device that can be picked up if there is some money left over in the budget. There are some great learning apps for the iPad, too, as well as dictionaries and other reference material that would come in handy for any student. It is surprisingly easy to write text in foreign languages on the iPad as well.
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