I studied architecture at TAMU and am now a licensed architect. For architecture work, you absolutely will want a 15" monitor as a baseline. You could get by with a 13"-14" screen for other classes, but in the ENDS program, your non-major classes really last for only your first couple of years, and you will be relying on your laptop constantly for your studios, so I would recommend biting the bullet for a 15" screen now. Ensure that you have a 1080P display at a minimum (most laptops with the other specs you mentioned should easily have this these days).
As far as manufacturers go, I am on my second Lenovo Thinkpad T-Series (business line laptop) and it has been excellent. My current machine is a T580 from 2018 and I regularly run Revit/AutoCAD/Adobe CC/etc. on it with no problems. I bought my first T-Series Thinkpad when I started grad school in 2012 and only replaced it in 2018 because the physical case was become brittle in spots and I caught a great sale on an updated model. If well equipped, one of these should last you through undergrad at a minimum. Prior to buying Thinkpads, I also had a Dell Latitude through undergrad (Dell's business-line series) which was also excellent. I would prioritize build quality over raw power. Both of these lines are easy to repair and can actually be serviced if needed, unlike most consumer laptops (typical Best Buy quality) which are essentially disposable. These business-line PC's are mainly usually by large companies due to being build quality workhorses, but can be purchased by individuals as well (if looking at Lenovo, check out their student discounts which can be generous). On the flipside, when I was at TAMU, many of my studiomates bought high-end end consumer laptops which only lasted a couple of years with how much a laptop is pushed in the studio environment (overheating HP's were the worst offenders back then). Gaming computers often have great horsepower, but the build quality can be somewhat questionable, and they are usually a massive pain to carry around and use in other classes (where lecture halls are often equipped with extremely small desks).
Additionally, when I was in school, it was pretty common for many students to build desktops during their third or fourth year for use through grad school, as a typical laptops simply aren't efficient for renderings or graphics-intensive work due to the constrained chassis size. With this in mind, I would look for a laptop with discrete graphics, but don't necessarily splurge for the highest end card possible as it will be older-skewing by the time you really need it later in the program or in grad school.
As far as specs go, you are definitely on the right track. I would shoot for an i7 (or AMD equivalent) and 32GB or RAM if at all possible. You will also want a large SSD, as project files can take up a substantial amount of space. Discrete graphics is also best, but like I mentioned previously, it's not nearly as key as your processor and RAM.
Lastly, as a quality of life improvement, I would strongly recommend getting a second charger which you can lock in your studio desk, along with a sleeping bag and plenty of late night snacks! And if profs try to convince you to spend a bunch of time learning Rhino or Maya, please slap them for me, as you will likely never touch either one once you are out of school. If you want to very quickly land a job out of college, learn everything there is to know about Revit (even if you have to teach yourself). And most importantly, have fun with it!
Feel free to DM me with other questions. Gig'Em!
