For typography and digital fonts, the best choice among the options provided is Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is well-known for its vector graphic capabilities and offers a full range of tools and plug-ins specifically suited for typography work. It allows for precise control over text and fonts, making it an ideal choice for a class focused on these topics.
While Photoshop can also handle text and typography, it is primarily a raster graphics editor, whereas Illustrator is vector-based, which is generally more versatile for typography. CorelDRAW is another good option for vector graphics, but Illustrator is more widely used in the industry for typography. GIMP, being a raster graphics editor, is less suitable for this purpose.
So, the best answer is Illustrator.