Shut Down or Sleep?

Is it better to be always shutting the MBP down, or should I just let it sleep?

It's generally better to let it sleep, unless you're going to be leaving it for more than a couple of days. You should get about 100 hours out of sleep time out of it, but don't bank on it. I only shut my macbook down for updates and it's fine.

It is not better for your computer letting it sleep or shutting it down. Both turn the hard drive off, the only thing is sleep does not turn the ram off so it will turn back on faster. It does not use alot of battery power and that is why i leave my powerbook to sleep. Its just a convienence thing, if you want it to come on faster later let it sleep.

What about when you're transporting it somewhere? Is it okay to let it sleep and not shut it off?

As long as the disk is off, it's fine to move the machine around. The disk goes off during sleep, and on the newer machines it will go off if you move the machine while it's running thanks to the motion sensor. Of course, this is only for sudden movements that could damage the disk, rather than any motion at all, but these machines were designed to move around while powered up.

So, is it bad if I turn my computer off when going from one class to the next?

not neccesarily bad per se.....just totally unnecessary.