PC vs Mac: Which should I buy?

I'm a English major in my 3rd year of college (basically I'm almost done, but it's going to get harder from here with higher level classes) and my old laptop was a piece of crap, and finally died. So I'm buying me a new one, I have a budget of less than $600, and I will be using it for school. I've found some refurbished Macs for around 550-600 and PC'S are a dime a dozen under $600. I will be using it for school, but I also like to play games on it, nothing major, I'll play minecraft or Sims or something along those lines. So I just need to know, which one is going to last me the longest, is going to get me through school, and which one will let me play the games I like without serious lag?

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