Actually engineering software like Solidworks , Autocad , Ansys if you do 3d modelling , is preferably to have discrete GPU. They support GPU hardware acceleration. Of coz, discrete GPU is in gaming laptops.
If u only need to do 2D , then integrated graphics is good enough. But 8GB of RAM is not enough. Latest Solidworks you need minimum 16GB RAM to be usable.

From what I know , Autocad is free for education, renewable every 3 years. Matlab is priced at campus license . So the student has to register at mathworks with their student email address with their institution domain to get free license.

Nowadays bcoz of covid , classes are online now. Ppl dont go campus. You kinda need your own machine to work on.

That is not for student level la. Anyways , Quadro is the same silicon as GeForce , just with drivers that are certified by the industry CAD software makers. Maybe more VRAM , and thts it.
Autocad works perfectly fine with GeForce or Radeon , the requirement is only DirectX support.
Many years ago , ppl need Quadro because CAD software demand OpenGL drivers which GeForce suck at. Now no more.