Our three kids each took a MacBook to college. One is now in grad school using the same 6 year old machine. One is a senior and one is a sophomore. Reliability has been very good on all three machines. We always have some sort of problem, so we have always bought the extended warranty and gotten our money’s worth out of it. Other writers are correct - - see if he college or department your child is attending has special requirements. That seems to be less the case lately than five years ago.
Our kids were all raised on Macs (Mom used to work at Apple), so it was a very comfortable environment for the kids when headed to college. Kids really don’t need any more stress their freshman year than absolutely necessary, so avoiding the problems of learning a new OS can be a big help.
Lastly, it was a lot easier for me to troubleshoot problems remotely on the Mac than on the PCs. Things “just work” on the Mac.
Pardon the absence. I’m currently comparing the XPS with the MacbookPro. My eyes are glazing over.