A single object to hand your kid for their dorm that will move every 8 months is much nicer than a bunch of parts and wires.
bringing a stationary desktop to the dorms has never been the correct decision
A mini would add one extra part (the mini) and two extra cables (power + thunderbolt). The mini can be attached to the back of the monitor eliminating the extra part. How is that harder?
But why not just buy a Macbook at that point?
No, that's called a laptop.