School of Art Laptop Policy (2025)

Digital literacy is a necessity for 21st-century artists, designers, scholars, and educators. In First-year Foundations and other courses, students will move between traditional materials and digital platforms. The laptop will serve as a creative tool and portable studio, allowing students to work fluidly between classrooms and other workspaces on campus. Therefore, students entering the School of Art are required to have a laptop and a highspeed external hard drive.

Ball State’s Technology Store has our recommendations and can assist you with finding the right device. Students interested in the Visual Arts/Animation program are encouraged to purchase Dell or HP Windows/PC laptops. Students interested in Graphic Design and Graphic Communications Management are encouraged to purchase MacBook Pro laptops. Students interested in all other programs (Studio Art, Art History, Art Education) can be successful with either Windows/PC or Mac laptops. We do not recommend MacBook Air or Google Chromebooks as those machines cannot run the programs we use in the School of Art effectively.

Adobe Creative Cloud software is included in all Ball State students’ tuition. Students can download and use these apps on their own laptops and do not have to purchase their own software licenses for Adobe products.

Maintenance of the laptop is the student’s responsibility, and laptops must be in good working order throughout the semester. Ball State University’s IT office runs a technology helpdesk in Bracken Library that can assist with hardware repairs, software issues, and other computer support.

Minimum Laptop Requirements

Minimum Laptop Specifications:

  • Intel Core i5 processor (Windows/PC) or Apple M1 (Mac)
  • 8 GB random-access memory (RAM)
  • 256 GB solid-state drive (SSD)
  • Integrated graphics
  • 4GB discrete graphics (GPU memory)
  • 3- to 4-year warranty

Recommended Laptop Models:

  • Windows/PC: Dell XPS series, HP Spectre x360, Dell G5 or G7
  • Mac: MacBook Pro

Preferred Laptop Specifications:

Best for students pursuing Animation, Graphic Design, Video and New Media, and/or Photography.

  • Intel i7 or higher (Windows/PC) or Apple M2 (Mac)
  • 32GB random-access memory (RAM)
  • 1TB solid-state drive (SSD)
  • Integrated graphics
  • 8 GB discrete graphics (GPU memory)
    3- to 4-year warranty

External Hard Drive Requirements:

Procure a highspeed external hard drive that has a capacity of 500 GB to 2TB. All external hard drives can be formatted for Windows/PC and Mac devices.

You can purchase the Mac, Dell and Lenovo in the Ball State Technology Store.