As much as i hate my own answer, when using a computer for work or school you should adapt to using the operating system and sofware supported by that school.
The last thing you want is to, in middle of class get instructed to download and use x, and then have to go into a rabbithole of trying to be compliant, missing the class.
I would not trust a vm for cad software because i don't know how heavy the stuff is that you would be doing. You might need that dedicated gpu. dualboot is probably a better option.
Another interesting idea, based on the fact that Linux can read and use from windows disks is to make it windows and school appropriate with 2 partitions, then install your preferred linux on a fast bootable usb.
This way you can take and run your linux wherever you want, and when you plug it in the laptop you just access the partition from the windows disk to put heavy programs and files.
I am doing sm similar on desktop where my old windows drive is still there and functional but is also used as game install drive from linux.