All incoming students are required to have access to a laptop meeting the minimum requirements outlined below for class purposes. (These machines can be individually owned, shared with another student, or borrowed when available.) Additionally, all upperclassmen purchasing new computers are strongly encouraged to consider a laptop to take full advantage of the wired and wireless access available in all academic and residence halls.
We support both Mac and Windows based machines and provide the following recommendations when making a purchase:
Departmental Recommendations
In addition to the minimum specifications noted below, students studying primarily in certain departments may have additional requirements to consider:
- Accounting, Business and Economics - A Windows compatible computer with the current version of Microsoft Office Pro
- Computer Science - Some applications used by the Computer Science department are Windows only. Mac users may need to run Windows in a virtual environment to use these programs.
Recommended MINIMUM Specifications for NEW Windows Laptop
- Processor: 9th Generation Intel Core i3, 2.53GHz or any i5 or i7 processor
- Memory: 8 GB Memory
- Hard Drive: 250 GB (solid state drives will provide better performance)
- Wireless 802.11n
- Built in web camera
- Software:
Recommended MINIMUM Specifications for NEW Apple Laptop
- Processor: Any of the i-series or M1 processors available in the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro
- Memory: 8 GB Memory
- Hard Drive: 250 GB
- Wireless: Integrated into laptop
- Built in web camera
- Software:
REQUIRED MINIMUM Specifications
- Processor: Intel i-series or equivalent processor
- Memory: 4GB
- Hard Drive: 128GB
- Wireless: 802.11n or AirPort
- Software: Mac OSX (v10.11), Windows 10, updated anti-virus program
