Just some items to consider.
As a freshman entering college on a $1350 budget, I might suggest this:
The low end MacBook - $999
Take advantage of the $200 rebate and get yourself an iPod, depending on which one you choose, minimum - $199 up front - even if you don't want it, you can turn around and sell it.
Printer - don't see it on the Apple site, but I know the Apple stores also have a $100 rebate on printers, you'll need one I would think - $100
You are now up to your limit after tax of $1350
Use NeoOffice until the new version of Office for Mac is released, the current version runs under Rosetta, meaning it is not designed for the intel processors and will be a little slow - NeoOffice is free - Office for Mac should be still $150, but knowing MS - it may go up to $200 even with student discount - your rebate on the iPod will pay for this.
Extended warranty - $183 - you have a year warranty to start with and you also have the same year period to add the warranty later - The rebate on the printer will pay for half of this.
DVD burning and Hard drive for the $200 upgrade to the middle line MacBook -
The Super Drive - it's not really that super - would think that if you need DVD burning, most if not all of this could be done at home - an external Pioneer 18x and a case can be had for less than $80.
Right now you can get external 500GB hard drives from multiple manufacturers for $130
Both of these can be added later for the same $200 when you have saved a little more $$$.
Ram can also be upgraded later for a lot less money than Apple charges.