Searching for a laptop for college (U.S. $650-900 Budget)

Total budget and country of purchase: $650-900 in the United States.

Do you prefer a 2 in 1 form factor, good battery life or best specifications for the money? Pick or include any that apply. Definitely do not want a 2 in 1. I'm looking for a balance between the best specifications and a good battery life. I want for the computer to last for a few years, so having fairly good specs is definitely a focus.

How important is weight and thinness to you? Not super important. Obviously a less heavy laptop would be nice, but I'm ok with the bulkier ones so long as it is nothing unreasonable.

Which OS do you require? Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Linux. Windows preferably.

Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A. I would like a 15.6" screen, and would be fine with smaller screens, but definitely nothing larger.

Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run. I don't plan to be a major gamer. So long as it can run things like LoL or games of that nature it should be fine. I will end up having numerous tabs open for research purposes (around 20-30) so being able to handle large browser loads is a must.

If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want? I've never been a major stickler for ultra settings graphics. So long as 30 fps and medium setting are within reach I'll be ok.

Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? Build quality is definitely a priority. I've used a MacBook up until this point and really enjoy the quality case. I'd like to avoid a cheap plastic case which overheats or can't withstand the occasional drop. Side from that, no touchscreen and decent ram (8mb). I'd like for a 1TB hard drive, and would prefer SSD being an option which can be added later. Regarding processor, I would like an quad-core i7 just to have the available power without having to change in the future but higher end i5 processors would probably more than suffice.

Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion. I plan to use this laptop for college, and want it to be able to hold its own throughout all 4 years. In my own research I've come across some really good laptops like the Lenovo Y700 which seems perfect (but a bit out of the price range on Lenovo.com) and the Dell 7559 (which is held back by a plastic build).