All undergraduate CLA students are required to have a laptop computer. CLA continues to develop its successful technology initiative, which encourages all students to actively use laptop technology in their courses and course assignments. The laptop requirement supports our effort to ensure that CLA students gain valuable technology skills and experience as an integrated part of their education in the humanities and social sciences: making students more competitive in their future academic and professional careers.

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You are welcome to purchase a laptop from wherever you like as long as it meets the technology requirements. CLA has worked with the UMD Computer Corner which offers Mac and Windows laptops and accessories with excellent features and prices often below retail. Required technology purchased at the Computer Corner is sales-tax free.

All UMD students are able to include the cost of a personal computer in their request for Financial Aid. Financial Aid Computer Information
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Follow this link for general information about technology hardware requirements. For Windows 7 or Mac OS 10.5 (or newer) look for a 2.0 GHz processor or faster, and remember a service agreement and replacement insurance for at least three years is very helpful. Detailed technology requirements for CLA and the other colleges are here: Technology Requirements for CLA.

Software Information
UMD Students have access to a variety of software applications. Some commercial software is available to CLA students at no direct cost: such as Symantec Antivirus, ESRI ArcView and SPSS. Other software such as Microsoft Windows 7 or Office is subsidized by the University and available at a greatly reduced fee.

CLA recommends Microsoft Office and UMD requires antivirus software. Microsoft Office and Symantec Antivirus are available to all students. Computer Corner or click here http://www.msca.umn.edu

Now available: Microsoft Windows 7 and Office 2010 (Win) and Office 2011 (Mac) for students.