I'm just started college and my older brother gave me a 3-year old lenovo flex laptop he used before it has the specs:
Core i7 5500U
Intel HD 5500 graphics
8 gb DDR3 RAM
500 gb Samsung evo 860 SSD
1080P display
Windows 10 OS
Is this a usable laptop still for college use (homework, web-browsing, netflix, and document editing)?
Overkill for your basic uses.
A 20 year old machine would be able to do these tasks.
Looks like good machine
Sure.
Based on the information you provided, that's way more than you need to do basic tasks like Microsoft Office and surfing the web (the graphics card should allow you be able to run heavy image and video editing software like Photoshop effortlessly).
Yes, those specs are still more than adequate today. You just won't be able to play any major games on it, but then even when it was new, you couldn't play any games on it either. But for productivity, Internet surfing, videos, etc., it's perfect.