Comment I would suggest... (Score 1) 1
I think that someone who is entering a program to study video game development should be able to select the hardware they believe is the best fit. If he can't figure out what hardware is best for the amount of money he has to invest I would think that he doesn't have a solid enough background to succeed at game development.
That being said, I am not a developer. I have always been more of a hardware geek. I would go suggest getting the best laptop for the money he has. I did this with my wife recently and ended up getting a Toshiba. Simple considerations will be that it would (obviously) have to have a good video card, a decent amount of RAM, and a hard drive that will provide sufficient storage capacity for not only writing but also compiling the games that he is writing.