Azarova [they/them]

If you’re getting a laptop with a graphics card, make sure you go with something by AMD. Nvidia cards will work fine enough, though for a whole host of different reasons, AMD is generally preferred for Linux.

Damn, that’s rough. What are the alternatives to Mull?

If you’re ever forced to use windows for whatever reason, your college should have computers in a library or something that you could use. As far as office software compatibility goes, the office documents themselves are likely to show up with formatting errors if opened in another office suite, but there’s no such issue if you export to PDF though, so I always did my work in LibreOffice and then turned in a PDF and there were never any issues. For group work, I always found it easier to just use one of the browser-based office suites for file compatibility or for working on the same document together.

yup

banking app already don’t let you root or otherwise flash your device

It’s unfortunately only developed for the Pixel series of phones, but I’ve been using my banking apps on GrapheneOS with no issues.