Rebates can be limited to residences in the US - you may want to use a friend's address for that.
A bit of unsolicited advise:
On brands, I would recommend Sony, Toshiba or IBM/Lenovo. I would stay away from Compaq and Dell. Dell quality has been on the downslide with their portables. They are facing class-action lawsuits on several models of their popular Insipiron series laptops due to poor design leading to premature motherboard failure - often when the machines are just out of warranty.
Best Buy is a national chain that has some of the lowest prices on desirable and up-to-date models.
Good Luck!