Needing a laptop for college

1. What is your budget?
<$1,000, but negotiable since I -do- need it for school.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Anything with more than 14" screen, lightweight is definitely a plus.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
1024 by 768 or larger is preferred .

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
A portable laptop I can take to school and back.

5. How much battery life do you need?
I'm not too crazy about this because the school has outlets everywhere but I would love anything over 4.5 hours of battery life because I tutor children for five hours straight and my laptop is an essential tool.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
I don't often play games but most likely

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
I do need to run certain software like Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Maya, Mudbox while multitasking on browsers and other programs at the same time. I'm also taking programming classes but I'm in the dark on to what I need for that. I am also a digital illustrator who depends a lot on a Bluetooth (USB Port Needed) Wacom Tablet

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
320GB, 7200 RPM. I'm debating whether or not to invest in an external hard drive.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Usually Neweggs but I am open to suggestions!

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
Two to four years, if not longer.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
CD-RW/DVD combo Drive is the school's minimum requirement but they recommended that I have a DVD-RW/DVD combo drive instead.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
The school I go to has a Laptop Help Desk whose technicians are certified to do warranty service on IBM/Lenovo notebooks

13. What country do you live in?
United States

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Other specs that the school wants as a minimum requirement, followed by a recommended one:
Processor - Intel®Core 2 Duo CPU → Intel®Core Duo CPU i-Series (i3, i5, i7)
Memory - 2 GB DDR-RAM, expandable to 4 GB → 4 GB DDR-RAM, expandable to 8 GB
Networking - Integrated 802.11b/g/n wireless, Integrated Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 ports

I realized that the laptops I own with hinges on the corners are easily broken (the casing) so I would probably prefer a design where the hinge is in the center, if you get what I mean?

Thank you!

Hello, alternatively you could take a look at Asus 14" models like
Asus K42j