School of Art Laptop Policy
Students entering the School of Art at Ball State University will be required to have a laptop. Digital literacy is a necessity for 21st century artists, designers, scholars and educators. When taking the first-year art foundations core classes, 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 the studio classroom and other workspaces on campus.
Students are encouraged to purchase laptops either through Ball States Technology Store (LINK https://www.bsu.edu/about/administrativeoffices/technologystore) or from reputable vendors. Warranties and service plans are highly recommended. Students must have laptops capable of running the following Adobe programs: Photoshop, Illustrator, Animator and Aftereffects. Students may choose between Mac and PC laptop, if they meet our minimum requirements for hardware and software. See below for minimum requirements.
Maintenance of the laptop is the responsibility of the student, and laptops must be in good working order throughout the semester. Ball State University offers IT resources for students through our office of Unified Technology Support, which includes hardware repair, appointments with consultants, a technology help desk and concierge desk. https://www.bsu.edu/about/administrativeoffices/uts
Students who do not wish to participate in the School of Art laptop program are still responsible for completing all required digital coursework using other personal or university resources. Laptops which vary from our specifications must be able to run the software needed in School of Art courses.
Minimum Laptop Requirements
MAC Minimum Specs
MacBook Pro
Processor Intel: Intel 7thGen (or newer CPU)
Operating System: macOS v10.12 (or later)
Monitor Resolution 1920 X 1080 (or greater)
RAM 8 GB of RAM
GPU 2GB of GPU vRam (4 GPU vRAM Preferred)
Storage 256 GB SSD
MAC Preferred Specs
MacBook Pro
Processor Intel: Intel 8th Gen (or newer CPU)
Operating System: macOS v10.12 (or later)
Monitor Resolution 1920 X 1080 (or greater)
RAM 16 GB of RAM
GPU 2GB of GPU vRam (4 GPU vRAM Preferred)
Storage 1TB SSD
PC Minimum Specs
Processor Intel: Intel Core i5 (or higher)
Operating System: Windows 7, or 10 Professional
Monitor Resolution 1920 X 1080 (or greater)
RAM 8 GB of RAM
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 (or higher)
Storage 256 GB SSD
PC Preferred Specs
Processor Intel: Intel Core i7 4.1GHz (or higher)
Operating System: Windows 7, or 10 Professional
Monitor Resolution 1920 X 1080 (or greater)
RAM 16 GB of RAM
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (or higher)
Storage 1Tb SSD
We recommend any of these vendors and type of laptops:
Dell Precision Mobile Workstation
Dell Vostro
Dell XPS
Dell Alienware
Wacom Mobile Studio
Lenovo ThinkPad
You can purchase the Mac, Dell and Lenovo in the Ball State Technology Store.