Not to sound like a jerk or anything, but if you're comfortable replacing a video card on your own, then you can build from scratch, it really only fits together one way, and almost every new part comes with some kind of owners manual/instructions. If you're going to college I assume you can read, I understand the trepidation, but aside from static discharge (which I assume you know about, again, college bound) PCs are pretty resilient. Not only that, once you do it once, you'll have to fix your moms computer whenever it breaks down, and you will become the family tech. Nothing against prebuilt, it's just that you can do so much better, then you have to replace parts less often/better warranties/pride... I can give you the basics pretty quick.
1)Take care of the static.
2)Make a list of the parts you will need, a budget and an account here can help tremendously, remember, we were all at the same place you were at once, and most here are readily available to help out at a moments notice.
3)Get a good Power Supply.
4)Have fun!