You should talk to your school financial people, are you paying the whole tuition out of pocket? I went to a school that cost over $30,000 a year and loans were pretty much assumed, and any tuition increases would automatically be put into the loans. It should be pretty painless to set that up, just talk to your school's student financial department.

If you are broke now, then you will be just as broke after selling your computer and then using the money for tuition. They should be able to increase one of your loans to cover the tuition. In any case you definitely need to have more spare cash than being within $1000 of broke. What happens when you break a finger, or your car exhaust system falls off, or you need to buy a suit for an interview?

Q: Does the tablet PC help you keep and organize notes better than paper and pencil, improving your grades?

If so, then try to get your loans increased to cover tuition. In today's competitive employment market, a 0.1 increase in GPA is worth $1000.