I depends what you are studying. I am a chemistry PhD student and about a quarter to a third of the people I work with use Mac, unfortunately some of the software we have to use is not available for Mac so they either have to use the rubbish office PCs or run windows on their Macs. Some manage without complaint, others turn the air blue with the problems that arise.
The Core M processor is, as I understand it, less powerful than the i5 and i7 processors in the Surface Pro 3. There are several reviews of products with Core M processors that seem to show the device is less powerful than the previous generation which used an i5 or i7 processor. The advantage (and the reason Core M is impressive) of Core M processors is that they use far less power and don't need a fan which together result in longer battery life and thinner devices.
Note that while intel released Core M broadwell based processors they also released 5th generation Broadwell i3, i5 and i7 processors. ie. Core M is designed to complement Intel's processor offering and is not meant as a replacement for the iCore series. Unfortunately, most of the tech media (with the obvious exception of Tom's) clearly don't realise this; hence all the articles that say the Surface Pro 4 will *definitely* have a Core M processor and other articles that bang on about the new *fast* Core M processor in the Mac Book.
At this point I would wait a few months and see what the Surface Pro 4 offers. Personally I expect Core M, i5 and i7 versions of the surface pro 4 or possibly a jump straight to Skylake processors.
Remember!! No matter how good the review or how much kudos a device will give you it is still rubbish if it will not run the programs you want it too. I suggest looking into what software you will need to run over the course of your studies and then add more power as Universities often seem to understate the requirements especially on scientific and technical courses.
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