Hope this is the right place to put this, but I need a laptop for school coming up soon. I just got my first credit card about 3 months ago and have been buying small things and paying them off over time(so I am trying to get some kind of credit going). I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on where I could pull out a small loan somewhere between $1,000 - $2,000... not sure if that is possible with no credit...but maybe you all know a place? Need a laptop soon for school. When I was looking a couple months ago, I found one from capital one, that looked like I might have been able to get it, but I can not find it on there site anymore .

I appreciate any help and advice given! Thank You.

My first suggestion would be to contact your school's financial aid office to ask if they'll do a cost of attendance adjustment to include the cost of the computer. This could allow you to qualify for additional federal aid.

So far I have been at two universities that have programs where you can go through them if it is required by the institution for you to have a laptop/computer. One was a loan, the other was a good discount. You might want to see what's available with your university when you get there rather than look for a personal loan. That's if the financial aid officer can't increase your financial aid amount.

If you can get away with it, desktops are much cheaper, easier to repair, and easier to upgrade and consequently, can last you much longer. I got an ad for a Dell desktop with great specs for $640 last month. It stuck out at me because I spent $2,250 on a laptop with the same specs.

Price does not equate to a good laptop/computer.

Really you probably won't notice a difference between a 1.4GHz Core Duo and a 1.8GHz Core Duo - therefore it's not worth the $200 upgrade.
Will you really need 350GB of storage? If so look at external hard drives as you will likely get a better $/GB ratio.

An intern here came to me asking about buying a laptop, said he had $1500 worth of graduation money and wanted to get a good laptop for him to take to college with him.

When I asked him what he was going to do - his answer was: Write papers, download music, surf the net, watch movies...really nothing too intensive.

You can do all that with a $600 laptop, you could get in on Dell's Small Business line of Vostro's - like I suggested him to do - and get a laptop for sub $500+shipping.

He's getting Core Duo 1.4 with 15.4" widescreen, 250GB hard drive, 4GB RAM, and a built in webcam for less than $600.

/2cents.

Does you school require you to have a laptop? Some programs at my school did (not mine, though), and those students had the cost of a laptop included in the cost of attendance established by the school. So they could get federal loans for them.

Either way, talk to your FinAid office. Chances are, they can find you a loan with a low interest rate, possibly even one that allows for in-school deferment of payments.