Thinkpads would be really nice, I used one when I was at college. Mainly used for programming and writing assignments, had no bad experiences with it.
I recently started my first office job and got given a laptop, the Dell Precision 5540, and its really good but I do do a lot of processor heavy stuff so it might be overkill.
Also, when asking for recommendations you may want to say what they'll be doing. For instance, if they're using 3D modelling software they'd need a better CPU and maybe a GPU. Or if they're using excel and word mainly, you wouldn't need anything too heavy.