Might want to wait, apparently the iPad 3 is already nearing release.
Yeah, wait for the iPad 2 to drop in price and buy that

That's what I did when I got my iPad 1. Plus by the time the 3rd one comes out, the iPad 2 should be completely jailbroken, and that means you can install ScummVM.
I got one for Christmas, and I really like it. I might end up selling it and putting the money towards a laptop instead though, just because that would work better for college. I already have an iPod Touch that works just as good as the iPad does.
I wouldn't sell it for a laptop, shorter battery life + weight + low reliability make laptops pretty annoying imo.
A better solution is to get a bluetooth keyboard for note taking, and get things like TeamViewer and Dropbox for remote desktopping and cloud storage. Assuming you have a home PC of course.
I just don't really see the point in laptops anymore, tablets and netbooks are much better as sort of thin clients, while desktops beat them completely in power and reliability stakes.