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School of Information Sciences Computer Recommendations

Graduate:
The iSchool requires that all graduate (Master's, PhD, and CAS) students own a laptop. The laptop must run Windows 10 or MacOS (13 or newer). Chromebooks, tablets, and smartphones are not adequate.

Several courses use Windows applications, which Mac users will need to be able to run through dual booting or a virtualization utility (such as Parallels or VirtualBox).

Parallels and VirtualBox run natively on Apple Silicon chips, but are both paid software. VirtualBox's Developer Preview version also runs natively on Apple Silicon, but is in the early stages of support and may be buggy. (updated: July 2023)

Minimum recommendations:

  • Processor: Core i5 1.7GHz dual-core or better
  • RAM: 8GB (12GB if attempting virtualization)
  • Hard Drive: 250GB HDD/SSD or greater
  • Display Resolution: 1920×1080
  • Administrator Access: You must have an administrator account on the laptop.
  • Warranty: A warranty of two years or more is highly recommended.

Undergraduate:
While personal laptops are strongly recommended for all undergraduate students in the iSchool, owning a laptop is not a program requirement. Please note that laptops may be required for certain courses.

There is not a specific recommended laptop model for students to own. Computer needs will differ depending on personal preference and the types of courses the student is taking. For example, HCI/UX courses may use Adobe products and require a strong design component, while data science and data analytics courses may require increased Processor/RAM/Hard Drive capabilities.

Your laptop must run Windows 10 or MacOS, version 13 or newer. Chromebooks, tablets, and smartphones are not adequate for academic use.

Tech Zone has a wide selection of both PCs and Macs that would be suitable for the School of Information Sciences coursework. We also offer Apple educational pricing to all members of our campus community.

Microsoft Office 365 including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are available to all students free of charge from the Webstore (software purchases and support.)