Better laptop overall

Simply going by your links, I'd say get the Dell - no matter what kind of student you are.

The HP is $760 - down $200 - and while it does offer a marginally faster CPU it makes do with the UHD 620 IGP. You also get more RAM, but I seriously doubt going from 8GBs to 12GBs will be that noticeable - 8GBs to 16GBs most definitely a difference.

The Dell is $800 - "down" $30 - so at first glance more expensive, but you do get the larger 4GB 940MX GPU. This GPU has been a dependable and popular unit in business laptops for many years, now being replaced with the new MX150. This may explain why Dell are willing to throw in this powerful GPU seemingly at no extra cost. 8GBs of RAM will be enough for most professionals and certainly a computer science student.

From what I've found, both weigh about the same (4.4lbs for the Dell, 4.7lbs for the HP) and offer roughly similar battery life (5:50 hours for the HP, and 6:15 for the Dell). Obviously, the HP earns points with its 2-in-1 design, but you may want to read this December 2017 review by laptopmag:
https/www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/hp-envy-x360-15t

The HP was clearly priced way too high at $960, but even at $760 it somehow manages to be too expensive.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.