consider Software free… look on ebay for something in your price range… WITH NOTHING INSTALLED…
any reason you are on such a tight budget? if its lack of money… Get a laptop off ebay and i’ll load everything (software wise that you will need for school)
get preferably a dell, (easy easy to work on if shit breaks) and make sure it has the following…
at least 256mb of ram
at least 1ghz processor
an ethernet card (preferably 10/100)
and at least 10gb harddrive