Thank you all for your responses. You've provided food for thought about hardware and some suggestions for software, and that's a good start. Now my niece has some research to do and decisions to make. She'll be researching what kind of technology is available and what textbook formats the school uses, what specific software applications the school recommends or requires. She'll be deciding what the first computer she owns should be, what OS to use, what applications to use. She'll also be thinking about tablets. She'll be reading a lot of threads and wiki articles, and maybe even ask some questions herself here on MR Forums about textbook formats, mobile devices, reader apps, and other software.
If I were going off to college with only the clothes on my back, a couple suitcases of stuff, a shoulderbag crammed with leftovers from the family's farewell dinner, and some selected technology bought with a limited budget (let's say appx $2000 US total for all hardware and software to use over 4 years of college), what would I want that technology to be?
For us it might be an interesting thought exercise, but for her it is much more serious because these decisions impact the next 4 years of her life. EDIT: Ehhrrr, didn't mean to sound so portentous and somber.