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School of Journalism and New Media
University of Mississippi

Laptop Requirement

Students seeking degrees from the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media will be required to complete class exercises and produce content using personal laptops. While the school currently provides some computer labs, you may not be able to complete all of your assignments if you rely solely on school equipment and software.

Students seeking a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism are required to purchase a laptop and the appropriate software, prior to enrolling in JOUR 271.

Students seeing a Bachelor of Science in Integrated Marketing Communication are required to purchase a laptop prior to enrolling in IMC 205.

Before purchasing a laptop, be sure to check the system requirements listed below. The school recommends purchasing an Apple laptop, but students can go with a Windows laptop if they prefer.

These following recommended specifications should allow you to complete 4 years without compromise. 

 

 

 

 

When choosing an Apple laptop, please consider the following recommendations:

  • M1 chip with a minimum of an 8core CPU, 8core GPU, and 16core Neural Engine.
  • Minimum 8G of RAM, but recommend 16G.
  • Minimum of 512TB SSD of internal hard disk storage, but recommend 1TB SSD.
  • 3 years of accidental damage protection and expert technical support.

There are many manufactures of Windows based laptops.  Therefore, please consider using the following specifications in choosing your selection:

  • Either a 11th Generation Intel Chip and higher Or a AMD Ryzen 5 (or PRO) Series chip or higher.
  • Windows 11 (Pro recommended).
  • Discrete graphics chip/card.
  • Minimum of 8G of RAM, but recommend 16G.
  • Minimum of 1TB of SSD internal hard disk.
  • 3 years of accidental damage protection and expert technical support.

Farley Virtual Labs

The School of Journalism and New Media has the only virtual lab on-campus and is available to its students – https://lab.journ.olemiss.edu.  It was created out of a need that COVID caused. Since students were no longer to be in the computer labs as they once were, this did not negate their need to have access to the software titles required by their Professors. 

The key to connecting to this lab is by utilizing free software from NoMachine. Now, thanks to our IT staff, students can have a computing experience as if they were sitting at a chair in our labs.