What is the best laptop to get that's under 500 dollars?

I'm not a US resident, but I know you can indeed buy new laptops for under $500 with 2g ram and 160g HDD's with reasonable processors, graphics cards and with the usual wireless internet, reasonable battery life and mobility. Anti virus inclusion is not the standard, but I would not recommend buying an anti virus, there are so many free anti virus programs which work better than those you pay for (Avast! And AVG come to mind) Also consider a net book, much cheaper, but less suitable for say, gaming or heavy graphics use.

But if its only for college - taking notes, recording lectures, internet use and similar, a net book should do just fine, have a longer battery life and be much cheaper than a laptop, they are also much more portable because of their smaller size and weight. Check your local computer stores - they are bound to have low priced laptops/netbooks for viewing.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.