So my oldest will be heading off to college in the fall. I'm not certain whether we want to go with buying her a gaming laptop, or a cheaper, light laptop for classes (she's not planning on being an engineering/IT major) and a desktop gaming rig. Pricewise, I think we could come out about even either way.

I could use opinions from current college students, especially US students, as to whether the desktop takes up too much dorm room space to be worthwhile. I think Microsoft often offers a student PC deal including an Xbox One around August; not sure if that's another avenue worth considering.

I'd go for laptop + desktop. As you already said, financially it's pretty much the same anyway. And a desktop is much more upgrade friendly so a few years down the line an easy gfx update will probably extend its lifespan for another two or three years.

Regarding the size of the desktop, if there's room for a desk, there's room for a desktop pc.

Why you want to choose gaming laptop?
They are heavier, hotter, bigger, more expensive.
Normal laptop is enough for most of college usage.

(instead of a gaming desktop)

Because they are smaller than desktops, and portable. If those don't matter, then it doesn't make sense to buy a gaming laptop.

I wouldn't buy a gaming desktop anymore, I buy only (gaming) laptops from now on. I just love the portability so much, I can easily move it between rooms inside my home or even take it outside my home (our summer cottage, when going abroad etc.).

For instance I have my gaming laptop right now in the living room connected to the big TV and stereo system (via HDMI cable), but when my wife arrives from abroad next week, I can easily pack it and move it either to one of the bedrooms, or the computer cabinet at the corner of the living room. With a desktop, all this would be much more cumbersome.

Take for instance this work laptop I have now. It is a pretty powerful 15.6" gaming laptop running modern AAA games, and while it is certainly heavier and thicker than some sleek and expensive business laptop, it isn't hard for me to move it every day in a backpack or a laptop bag between my home and the work place.

Well, I don't think I fit any of the criteria you mentioned as a brazilian, somewhat recently graduated guy, but I did go through the process of deciding on buying a laptop or a desktop recently, so I hope my two centavos (that's our brazilian cent :P) can help.

I'd suggest you go for a laptop+ gaming rig. I don't know about dorm sizes in the US, but unless you're planning on getting your daughter a huge screen and CPU case, a desktop shouldn't take that much space, especially close to a wall, might be even better if you stick it in a corner or something.

That way, the laptop can be used primarily for college work, so at most it'd need to be good enough to go online and have a Microsoft Office pack or whatever the equivalent is for other operating systems; and (Heavens forbid) if the laptop gets stolen/lost it should be cheaper to buy a replacement. I probably don't have to tell you or her that, but tell her to keep backups of the college contents from the laptop precisely for a scenario like that too.

One benefit of a light laptop is you can have a 12h battery life.

I bought a gaming laptop some years ago. My recommendation is cheap laptop + gaming rig. As mentioned above, you can upgrade a desktop easier. Also the heat issue sucks for laptops. I bought a usb fan for mine. And most keyboards on laptops aren't built that well for gaming. Pretty awkward for shooters and action games. So you end up using a regular keyboard/mouse for them anyway. I use my laptop for turn based games only.

What I learned as a parent is that it is important to buy a laptop with a very sturdy screen. No flimsy lids. That is my most important consideration. I buy dells only now after learning with the first kid. I buy my kids one laptop as a graduation present. I make sure that the wifi is dual band (2.4 ghz and 5ghz bands). I get them with i5 or i7 depending on deal. Plus, dual graphics with NVidia gpu. 15" screen. I spend about $700-$750 dollars, and wait for the right deal. I try for hybrid main drive (SSD and HDD combined) or SSD for OS and HHD for data.

Roommates? Will they lock door all the time? Who do they invite in?

A desktop computer is more pieces to secure or move out of the way. Not to mention it's kind of inviting for anybody who sees it and thinks they will just log in through a browser to check their email and such, but then download some malware unknowingly.

Could always get a thin and light / ultraportable / cheap laptop with a thunderbolt 3 port on it and look at getting an eGPU

Personally, I hated having a laptop and a desktop. Keeping files synced between the two always seemed to be a hassle. It's been 7 years since I last had both, so maybe cloud services and wifi availability have improved enough to eliminate that hassle, but I doubt it.

My current laptop is a 13" reasonably portable, reasonably capable machine, and I love it.
Intel i7-4700MQ CPU
16GB RAM
1080P screen
Intel HD 4600 / nVidia GTX765 optimus based graphic setup.
An m2 SSD drive and a 2.5" drive.

It's a bit bulky for a 13", but still nicer to pack around than my work 15" laptop, and still has pretty reasonable performance in games. I paid ~$900 for it 5 years ago.

buying a gaming laptop is a huge waste.

they don't run at clocks high enough to do anything well and their small form factor increases cost to manufacture something high performance. so basically, they are pricey and they suck as gaming PCs.

they're too bulky and they're made with electricity-hungry hardware and while we've made big gains lately in implementing power-gating and switching methods to make hungry hardware more resource-conserving when it's not needed, it's still not as good at holding charge and staying cool as something just designed to be mobile.

honestly I think she'd be a cooler kid, especially since she's female, without a gaming laptop but I could be wrong there.

if she really cares what she plays, a gaming laptop is mostly a waste of your money,

edit: the only thing the laptop will do is let her play her games anywhere.

Cheap lap + good destop. Games on desktop, text on laptop. It's interesting to be able to write and read and work in various locations, there's no point in bringing games along with you. Desktop may evolve with time, and games will require this, laptop won't and text processing doesn't need that.

And again, people who travel with videogames are a bit creepy.

Thanks for all the posts so far, keep 'em coming folks! I'll mark one reply as the "solution" tomorrow.

It's been some time since i've been in college, and I've never spent time overnight in a dorm. HOWEVER, my sis and brother in law both work in the IT field in some regard, and I've been around computers most of my life.

I would personally recommend the light laptop + gaming desktop. The desktop will be harder to steal, the light laptop will be easier to replace if it gets stolen, and assuming she's using Win 10 on both, she can log into the same MS account on both and sync her documents etc to OneDrive in case something happens to one or the other.

I would not recommend a gaming laptop. I've played on them before, and the performance is not that good for what you're paying. Coupled with heat issues, and that many dorms don't have central air, you're asking for problems.

Just my thoughts, and congrats on the kiddo going to college soon!
-Tyr