There's some really good stuff going on for windows laptops right now. A sale was on for Hp and I got a dv6 laptop for ~$1200, but the specs were quite an improvement from mbp. i7, 8gb ram, 1tb hard drive, blu-ray and discrete graphics. I guess if you're on a budget then you'd want to get the most out of your money, and windows is the way to go in that case. In Apple's case you're really paying for the glowing apple rather than the actual hardware. The premium is ridiculous, but as others pointed out, it does have great battery and build quality.
If you're a student, you won't need mbp or even a mb. A windows laptop will do, as all you're going to be doing is word processing and the internetz. If you're doing more, then you're not in year 11. Hell, even a netbook would suffice all of a students' needs.
As for recommendations, I'd go for something from Lenovo. They make good laptops with great value to my knowledge, and a lot of products are sub-$1000. They also supplied the netboooks for NSW junior students, and my brother's laptop is still in one piece after 2 years of abuse, so I'd say great build quality as well. Disadvantage is that they look utilitarian.
Hp is like the apple of windows. They look great, and you'll be paying for that as well, but not as much as you will be for apple. I wouldn't have bought mine if it wasn't on sale.