What he said, lol if any of your friends have it see if you can fandangle it from one them, i wish i could afford the new CS5 but my laptop wouldn't be able to run it as smoothly as what i have now (CS3).
Actually, you'd be surprised. I used to get lag with CS3, but when I upgraded to CS4 everything was a whole lot better. Same with CS5. Honestly if you actually haven't tried it you might want to.
I would get it, I don't need any other program for anything else graphic wise. Especially if your taking a class with it, it would be great to own.