Recommendations - Photography student

So - my daughter (16 yrs old Junior) is studying photography as it is something she wants to do as a career.  She has already started to develop a portfolio and (until Covid) had already arranged some photo shoots for Senior pictures / animals/ etc.  They, of course, got cancelled as they were to happen this spring.

She is saving up to purchase a camera and one of the colleges had mentioned the T7i as their recommended camera for her to get.  Until now, she is using the Photography department's equipment (not sure what it is..) but she wants to get her own.

We have been tracking the costs of the T7i and it looks to be stable around the $450 range with 2 lenses.  With the upcoming T8i, we were looking for thoughts on whether she should continue to save up until the T8 comes out or save the money and get the extra lens. I was seeing it at $900 for 1 lens.

She prefers to take portraits/ animals/ landscaping - not necessarily sports related.  She also is working on doing video work so either camera will be used for both down the road.  She wants the camera to be her starting point for her career and does not want to waste money.  She does like the Canon brand, she is more comfortable with it.

Thanks for any comments/ thoughts on it.

Let her buy early and enjoying taking pictures instead of buying  later and losing photo opportunities

the difference between cameras will be too small for her to notice

I'd recommend going cheaper on the camera and getting better lenses. I'd wager money she'd prefer the portraits from an f1.4-f2 lens over the kit lens and a T8i. Bodies will come and go, the lenses are where the power of interchangeable lenses comes from. Not to mention having 2 cameras is better than one for ANY paid work (1st piece of advice I try to get into anyone's head who is thinking of charging money at some point for photography but that's a later discussion LOL). Getting a model with DPAF will make video work a lot easier than not having it, so any model with DPAF will serve her well as a dual purpose photo/video tool. I found I outgrew the Rebel series pretty quickly due to interface/in hand use/battery. The XXd line will not be outgrown as quickly as XXXd. IQ wasn't the deciding factor between the two.

I'd take a Sigma 18-35 f1.8 with Canon or Sigma (DG) 50 1.4 and a 70d ALL 2nd hand/refurb over a brand new in box T8i with 18-55 and 55-250 kit lenses any day of the week. The kit lenses will end up on a shelf or under the bed in due time...and then she'll end up spending money on better lenses anyway.