Particularly for a college student, I suggest you upgrade to a laptop with AMD Fusion. This is a tick above the Intel netbooks. There are now several more laptops to choose from, but the first good example was the HP dmz1, see
HP dm1z: Taking Fusion on the Road. This is using the E-350 microprocessor, which is best if you can afford it. The cheaper option is the C-50, which is closer to the Intel Atom. See
Brazos comes to Acer's Aspire One 522 netbook.
The two sites I link to above have reviews of other laptops, look under their "mobile" reviews.