Reddit mentions of 2016 Summer Dell Inspiron Laptop (15.6 HD Truelife 1366 x 768 LED-Backlit Display, AMD A8 Quad-Core, Radeon R5 Graphics, 6GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, Win 10 Black Notebook)

Well I ordered this. How'd I do?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IWXJQVA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Dell at 24 more
Great gaming performance at its price, usuable CAD and video editing at its price point, since you're an engi student after all. But it has a slower hdd so boot times and general response won't be anything like your gaming machine. So its great for "Oh shit i cant access my desktop but I need to open this CAD mock up"

ASUS
This will get you through just type work but it is a speedy machine for just that. You cant really do much other that light media consuming (no 4k or 1080p) and the storage is low but has space for a 2''5 inch hdd.

Personal opinion, buying a gaming laptop for XI is all kinds of overkill. The game is from 2003ish and doesn't need anywhere near that kind of power, even with what updates it has gotten over the years.. That said, you did say you're planning to return it.

XI is very playable on the integrated graphics. If you really want to play XI, and only intend to play that on the laptop, I would just get a weaker laptop for a fraction of the cost(with the intent to play on integrated graphics), and put the rest of your money towards something else you want.

When I do play on my laptop, I play it on Intel HD 5500 and get decent frame-rates. I do turn a few things down in settings so I can bump up the game's resolution, but the game is still completely enjoyable.

If you do want to play it on the GPU... just about every laptop that is coming out at the moment uses a Nvidia GPU. There are a handful of AMD GPU machines out there, and one of those should be able to play the game as they just use the AMD GPU (as far as I know) and don't switch between it and integrated. AMD is supposed to be releasing new laptops later this year with their new Ryzen CPU line and updated GPU's in them as well.

You may also want to check your local classifieds and craigslist as well just to get something to play the game. Personally I would get a cheap option, and then wait for the AMD Ryzen ones if you want a modern gaming laptop. Otherwise, find something like these:

https://www.amazon.com/HP-Performance-Laptop-AMD-A10-8700P/dp/B01F27BR66/ref=sr_1_10?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1495822936&sr=1-10&refinements=p_n_feature_seven_browse-bin%3A3012495011

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Premium-Performance-Processor-Bluetooth/dp/B01LW0F62Q/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1495822936&sr=1-4&refinements=p_n_feature_seven_browse-bin%3A3012495011

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-i5555-15-6-inch-LED-backlit-Processor/dp/B01IWXJQVA/ref=sr_1_9?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1495822936&sr=1-9&refinements=p_n_feature_seven_browse-bin%3A3012495011

https://www.amazon.com/HP-Pavilion-15-15-6-Inch-Quad-Core/dp/B01EMWKFEC/ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1495822936&sr=1-7&refinements=p_n_feature_seven_browse-bin%3A3012495011

It's not a modern gaming laptop by any means, but it should run FFXI like a champ. I can't vouch for any of the machines, but I ordered them getting sequentially weaker and less expensive.

"intel graphics card" lel

at least get a low-end PC with a shoddy GPU, those are relatively cheap. If you're sticking to laptops, this should be fine for smite