Laptop Recommendations

Before purchasing a new laptop to use during your journey at Western Michigan University, please review these WMU recommended laptop specifications. You may also use these specifications to determine if your existing equipment is sufficient.

The general recommended specifications will provide greater computing capabilities than the minimum specifications as well as a longer lifespan. Minimum specifications are designed for typical academic tasks such as email, word processing, creating presentations, taking notes, accessing and participating in Elearning, and web conferencing.

Note: Please refer to the college-specific recommendations if you will be attending one of those programs.

General

PC Laptop	Minimum	Recommended
CPU:	Core i5 13th Gen / Core Ultra 5 (or newer/better)	Core i7 13th Gen / Core Ultra 7 Gen (or newer/better)
Memory:	16 GB	32 GB
Storage:	512 GB SSD	1 TB SSD
GPU (Video):	Integrated	Integrated
Camera:	Integrated	Integrated
Min screen resolution:	1920x1080	1920x1080
Operating system:	Windows 11 Home	Windows 11 Pro
Warranty:	3 years	3 or 5 years

Apple Laptop	Minimum	Recommended
CPU:	Apple M2 Silicon ARM	Apple M3 Silicon ARM
Memory:	16 GB	32 GB
Storage:	512 GB SSD	1 TB SSD
GPU (Video):	Apple M2	Apple M3
Camera:	Integrated	Integrated
Min screen resolution:	2560x1600	2560x1600
Operating system:	macOS 15 or higher	macOS 26 or higher
Warranty:	3 years	3 or 5 years

College Specific

College of Arts and Sciences

Follow the general minimum (or recommended) unless listed here.

School of Environment, Geography, and Sustainability – Recommended
Geographic Information Science – Recommended
Mathematics Department – Recommended
Statistics major – Recommended
Data science major – Recommended
Physics Department – Recommended

Students in the School of Communication film, video, and media studies program should meet at least the general Recommended laptop requirements. A larger storage drive and/or more memory could also be beneficial.

College of Aviation

Follow the general minimum (or recommended) unless listed here.

Flight Sciences
A minimum laptop plus an Apple iPad, for the iPad, 128 GB minimum (256gb recommended). PLUS cellular-capable is required.

College of Education and Human Development

Follow the general minimum (or recommended) unless listed here.

Fashion Merchandising and Design (Fashion Design and Development and Fashion Merchandising) - Recommended
Evaluation, Measurement and Research (Evaluation, Mixed-Methods Research, Qualitative Research Methods, and Evaluation, Measurement and Research) - Recommended

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences

See the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences website for program-specific laptop requirements.
Computer Recommendations

College of Fine Arts

Follow the general recommended for a PC or Apple laptop unless listed here.

Theatre Design students:

An Apple or PC laptop with an i5 CPU and at least 16 GB of memory.

Multimedia Arts Technology students:

An Apple or PC laptop with an i7 CPU and at least 16 GB of memory. An external display is highly recommended.

Product Design and Interior Design students:

Dell XPS 14 Laptop 32GB Memory i7 Intel Core, 512 GB HD, NVIDIA@ GeForce GTX 3050
or,
14-inch MacBook Pro Laptop (with Parallels for Mac), 32 GB Memory, M2 Pro, 512 GB HD

Given the adopted software for both design programs run on Windows OS, the Dell XPS Laptop is preferred.

If the student desires to purchase the MacBook Pro they will need to purchase Parallels — a software package enabling the MacBook to run Windows OS.

wmich.edu/designinstitute

Photography and Intermedia students:

An Apple or PC laptop with an i7 CPU and at least 32 GB of memory.

Graphic Design students:

An Apple MacBook Pro with an i5 CPU and at least 32 GB of memory. An external display is highly recommended.

Kinetic Imaging students:

An Apple or PC laptop:

Apple
MacBook Pro 16-inch, M3 Max chip with 36GB unified memory or more, with a 14‑core CPU, 30‑core GPU, and 16‑core Neural Engine.

PC (3 recommended options)

Alienware m18 R2 Gaming Laptop, Intel® Core™ i9 14900HX, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4090, 64 GB RAM, 8 TB SSD
Alienware m16 R2 Gaming Laptop, Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 185H, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4070, 64 GB RAM, 8 TB SSD
PC Razer Blade 16, Intel Core i9-14900HX, GeForce RTX 4090, 32GB 5600MHz RAM, 2TB SSD. (Recommended for Game Art)

College of Health and Human Services

Follow the general minimum (or recommended) unless listed here.

Blindness and Low Vision (BLVS) program has a summer graduate course (BLS 5840) – Recommended
Health Administration BS, course PH2340 – Recommended

Haworth College of Business

Follow the general minimum (or recommended) unless listed here.

Cybersecurity program – See program Technology Requirements page for details