General

[quote=RandomGenius]...I plan on using the laptop for taking notes, aim, facebook, skype, web browsing, and league of legends mainly...[/quote]

Any of these four laptops are fine for schoolwork however, I have reservations if any of these laptops can handle League without being really noisy as a result of their cooling fan spinning at max speed.

All four of these laptops have the same or similar specs. The only relevant differences are their user features to which I have provided the most obvious pros and cons I can gather from several reviews. Everyone in this thread saying the Macbook is a terrible choice doesn't know what they are talking about. Everyone in this thread saying the Macbook is the superior choice doesn't know what they are talking about. Repeat those two sentences for the other three laptops. Everyone has different opinions and I cannot decide for you which of the four is the best because I don't know what you want out of a laptop. Who knows? You might hate the hell out of the Lenovos' terrible terrible speakers or regret spending an extra $400 for the Macbook. If this were to be my laptop and my decision to make, I would choose the T430u because I don't have an ultrabook. I have three computers for college and thus my decision in this situation isn't relevant to most other students who stick with just one computer.

Macbook Pro
+Aluminum case is a luxury feature that actually feels good to look and touch (the Lenovos follow the old-school plastic rectangle inherited from IBM's design)
+Of these four laptops, has the best speakers and the best touch pad
+Good battery-life; up to 6 hours while surfing web
-Not free to you
-Mac OS X may have compatibility issues unless St. Johns's IT has updated compatibility across its systems network
-Mac version of League is still in an unstable beta phase
*Mac OS X has a lighter memory overhead than Windows and thus the lower amount of RAM is not important

Lenovo Thinkpad T430
+One of the two largest laptops out of the selection with a 14-inch screen
+Screen brightness can be bright enough to be used outdoors
+"Trackpoint" built-in mouse along with touchpad
+Free
+Good battery-life; up to 6 hours while surfing web
-Incredibly heavy (nearly 5lbs) for a 14-inch laptop
-Screen image quality is the worst of the four
-Bad speakers and bad touchpad
-Casing is an old-school plastic rectangle

Lenovo Thinkpad T430u
+Ultrabook; lightweight at 4 lbs while still having good system performance compared to the other three laptops
+One of the two largest laptops out of the selection with a 14-inch screen
+"Trackpoint" built-in mouse along with touchpad
+Good battery-life; up to 6 hours while surfing web
+Free
-Screen image quality is the worst of the four (same as T430)
-Small design limits cooling which limits the Intel i5 processor's Turbo Boost frequency
-Bad speakers and bad touchpad
-Casing is an old-school plastic rectangle

Lenovo Thinkpad X230
+Smallest and most lightweight, but still has the same 35W Intel i5-M processor as the larger T430 and Macbook Pro 13'
+"Trackpoint" built-in mouse along with touchpad
+Good battery-life; up to 6 hours while surfing web
+Free
-Smallest laptop of the four; most noticeable implications are the small screen and small trackpad
-Bad speakers and bad touchpad
-Casing is an old-school plastic rectangle

Get the T430.

The Macbook, money-wise, isn't the best choice.
HOWEVER!
Having the Genius Bar available will really help you in the long run, because with all other computers, you would have to send them to Dell or whoever to get them fixed, or go to a computer repair shop that may charge you more money or not fix/identify the problem.

dude. free.anything free. take it!

Get the Mac!
-Said nobody ever.

http://www.stjohns.edu/about/it/aci/laptop/laptopinfo/t410.stj

[url=http://i3.minus.com/ibwXxrMvRRbmHA.png]Don't get a Mac.[/url]

Def the Mac. I play maple on my mac.

I say the Lenovo Thinkpad T430 is probably the best one there.

don't buy mac.
there are other good laptops which are cost way less.
personally i hate the system/hard drive,( w/e its called T.T)
i prefer windows or even ubuntu

I like how the Mac, which is the worst, costs money.

Neither of them
Asus Zenbook is the way to go.