I felt the same well as you plus the cost was also a consideration. Perhaps like you I learn best by active learning so handwriting notes is best for me. However electronic tablets can be very helpful esp with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. variety is the spice of life and you can enhance your studies by adopting new tools to study the same content and material. Since repetition is the greatest teacher, use your pencil to paper approach for the first go around when tackling the content of whatever subject, then use your iPad Pro and Apple Pencil for the second or third go around.
My iPad Air 2 was very limiting for studies given my preferred learning methods. It had an old A8x processor and it kept freezing on me. So I traded up my iPad Air 2 for the 10.5” iPad Pro with Apple Pencil (use your educational discount!). My new iPad Pro 64GB has a screaming A10X processor and the screen real estate is just a smidgen bigger than my previous iPad Air 2. Now I can mark to my heart’s content my ebooks, (except Inkling), screen shots and board apps with legible, fine print handwritten notes with the Apple Pencil. Pages is especially good with the Apple Pencil.
The Apple Pencil cost $95 at the Apple Store. At first I thought it was ludicrous to pay that much for a “stylus”. Yet it is so much more than a stylus. The screen responds to the pencil without touching the screen. Plus it charges fully in 15 minutes. What a concept
I own an ancient Mac Book Pro that I bought refurbished and even with swapping the original harddrive that was on its last leg with a Samsung Solid State HD, I still rarely use my MBP.
Apple says the iPad Pro is the best tablet on the market. With the use of the Apple Pencil, I believe it. No regrets here from a “pencil to paper” note taker