I think MacBook should be able to meet a student video editing requirement.

I'm using a 3 year old PowerBook G4 and using Final Cut Pro to do my video edits. I'm able to to 2 hour length of video and did not encounter any problem. I'm able to view all my transitions without rendering it first (by holding the apple key and drag the cursor).

All the rendering and DVD authoring will be left for overnight work.