first JtD, welcome to the forums and hope you will enjoy yourself at WCU.
As for the computer thing… I could make arguments either way. The gateway FX line with the 9800m GTS is pretty darn good for the money but it really depends on why you wanted a gaming laptop to begin with. I liked having a gaming laptop back when I would go home on the weekends while at school and wanted to game at home too. If you only plan to game from your room (and of course at the LANs) then def go for a desktop. Besides getting more for your money, they are also more comfortable to play on over long periods of time. if I were starting out, I would go for a desktop and a netbook personally. If you are curious, I went the gaming laptop route then decided to buy a desktop anyways; one thing ppl rarely think of is unless you get like an SSD, laptop hard drives are MUCH slower than desktop drives, and when gaming that is a real pain (IMO)