*The Laptop Requirements posted below represent the prior academic year ('24-'25). The upcoming academic year requirements (for all students entering CIA in 2025-2026) can be found here.*
The following are the laptop requirements for students entering CIA in the 2024-2025 academic year. (This includes students who started mid-year at CIA in Spring 2025.)
All CIA students are required to have a laptop. This laptop needs to meet or exceed the following minimum specifications in order for your academic coursework to be completed successfully at CIA. The laptop that you use for your first academic year at CIA may be one that you already have, or one that is sourced specifically to meet the requirements of the Foundation program.
Depending on your major, you may be required to use a laptop with higher technical specifications to complete your academic coursework. These additional requirements are listed in the table below.
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Required Specs
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Majors + Programs
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- 13” HD Display (SPECIFIC DISPLAY SIZE NO LONGER REQUIRED)
- 16GB RAM
- 512GB Solid State Drive or More
- 3-year warranty
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Craft + Design (macOS or Windows)
Drawing (macOS preferred)
Foundation (macOS or Windows)
Interior Architecture (macOS or Windows)
Painting (macOS or Windows)
Printmaking (macOS preferred)
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- MacBook Pro
- 16" HD Display (SPECIFIC DISPLAY SIZE NO LONGER REQUIRED)
- 16GB RAM
- 1TB Solid State Drive (1TB SSD NO LONGER REQUIRED. 512GB STORAGE NOW REQUIRED)
- 3-year warranty
- 12-Core CPU
- 19-Core GPU
- 3-year warranty
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Graphic Design (macOS)
Illustration (macOS)
Photography + Video (macOS)
Sculpture + Expanded Media (macOS)
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- 15” HD Display (UHD recommended)(SPECIFIC DISPLAY SIZE NO LONGER REQUIRED)
- 16GB RAM
- 1TB Solid State Drive (1TB SSD NO LONGER REQUIRED. 512GB STORAGE NOW REQUIRED)
- Intel i7 processor or Ryzen 7 CPU
- Recommended Graphics Card: RTX 3060
- Minimum Graphics Card: RTX 2070
- 3-year warranty
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Animation (Windows)
Game Design (Windows)
Illustration (Windows)
Industrial Design (Windows)
Life Sciences Illustration(Windows)
Sculpture + Expanded Media (Windows)
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** Note that Illustration is listed with both a valid MacOS and valid Windows PC configuration as either system can be used within that major program.