[ianium]

Forget about taking notes in class with a laptop.

For some EE classes there is absolutely no way you are going to be able to take notes with all of the integrals, subscripts, superscripts, greek letters and strange symbols (but don't let that all scare you). The best way to get this all down is to write it down on paper, but I have seen some students do decently with a tablet computer (the kind that have a rotating/folding screen).

The other problem with a laptop (as another poster has mentioned, but I just wanted to emphasize) is that you will end up distracted. All it takes is for the lecture to slow down or someone to ask a silly question and the next thing you know is that the lecture is over and you're in the middle of some article about the next Apple product.

Base your decision on what you will be using your computer for outside of class: programming, maths simulation, circuit simulation, and lab reports. All of those can be done from within a Windows VM.