I dont think its worth. I have a lenovo thinkpad x220 and i bought it 80 pounds from gumtree. There was no problems with it and specs are relatively good mainly for the studies I am doing. My laptop has 4GB ram , intel HD graphics 3000 and i5 processor. Has alot of power for the studies I am doing. It is also good for watching youtube videos and many others, but not the best for gaming or graphics designing.
It depends what course you are doing though such as if you are doing a graphics designing course, you will need a powerful laptop which has good GPU etc.
But I see many students (MANY) buy macbook pro when they technically do not need it since it has way too much processing power. Such as, I went into a seminar full of nursing students. 99% had macbook pro, and I was in shock, theres no point having that much processing power for studies. If you want to follow the trend and buy macbook pros because everyone else is doing it, then go ahead - but I wouldn't follow this trend because I can probably get the same spec of the macbook pro for a cheaper price. But thats just me, do whatever you feel like doing : Either save money or buy it for the looks etc.
I spent 80 pound for the study laptop and I do have a PC too just for the general stuff that I want to do with like gaming, photoshopping pictures etc.
Id recommend the lenovo x220, my laptop is very, VERY good, and I dont need to charge it for a very long time depending on what I am using it for such as studies.