Photoshop versus Elements

Question

Hi all,
I used to know the answer to this, but in my old age have forgotten. I tried searching for it in the forum as I know it's be discussed here many times. Having said that, What is the difference between Photoshop and Elements? I'm thinking that Photoshop can handle prepress and CMYK whereas Elements does not.
I contacted Adobe, and the sales rep there said Elements is very much a beginner's program. He said that Elements was a very watered-down version of PS, and that PS has way more options, tools, and layers capability. Why am I thinking he's not correct? I'm thinking Elements does layers and such also.
I have CS here at home. My daughter is a photography major (and works as a professional portrait studio photographer, I might add). Her school uses PS CS3 and Lightroom. She's looking for the best (for me that might, just might mind you... mean least expensive way) to get both products for her Mac laptop.
She can buy CS3 for $300 and Lightroom for $100 through her school. I can upgrade to CS3 from CS for $200, but I will have to keep it on my machine, and it's not a Mac, so she won't be achieving her goal of having both programs on her laptop.
I'm thinking I need to fork over $400 and be done with it, but if I can save $200 by getting Elements instead of CS, Maybe I should. Then again, if she goes further with this, she'd surely need to upgrade to PS in the future anyway. But can't that be done from Elements to PS?
Pretty perplexed here now... any ideas from the pros?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Thanks, people!
I looked at the features of each program, but kinda got lost in them. There are some nice ones for each that aren't listed and some that are not so great that are left out.
Andrei's link was great in that it listed short comings of Elements, what those missing functions did, and who would care.
Rebecca won't be needing CMYK, but will definately be creating custom actions, and has done some web page design, so plus for PS. I can also see her needing layer styles without tricky work-arounds.
It might also be good that PS has color balance, curves, and layer mask ability. Maybe it's best for fork over the $200 difference and go with what she's been using in school knowing her requirement will probably dictate it in the future anyway.
Thanks for your replies. Anyone else want to weight in?