Whats a good school work laptop under $500USD

for school work i would say an i3 processor and intel integrated graphics.along with 2gigs of ram.search with the specs i told you and you will be fine.

Schoolwork doesn't require much, hell I use an eMachines E620-5885 which is a rebranded Acer Aspire 5515. Here's my specs:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item...
Even that works perfectly. Schoolwork is so low-end that even a netbook could do it but since you want a full laptop, I'd recommend this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Now, this laptop is not suitable for gaming because it has Intel graphics but if all you want it for is schoolwork, then it's perfect. The i3 won't offer you any real performance improvements over the Pentium Dual-Core so you may as well save the $50.  

thank for all the help peoples, i appreciate it, i already ordered the G62x

Well then noobie, you should be giving the best answer award to Addict. After all, he is the one who recommended the G62x.  

Best answer selected by buwish.