Photography Laptop Requirements

All juniors entering the Photography BFA program are required to purchase a laptop and software for use in their courses.

Laptops

Students should purchase an Apple Macintosh laptop. Currently, Apple markets two versions of their laptops, the lower-end MacBook line and the upper-end MacBook Pro line. Either model will be acceptable, provided it meets the following minimum specifications:

  • At least 1 GB RAM (2 GB or more is better)
  • 100GB hard drive
  • CD/DVD burner (external CD burner is acceptable)
  • Airport wireless networking card

In addition, students are required to purchase an external hard-drive:

  • At least 80 Gigabytes
  • Firewire 400 supported
  • Common brands include LaCie, Maxtor, Iomega, Western Digital

Students may elect to purchase the following items to supplement the laptop:

  • Security cable
  • Laptop bag
  • AppleCare extended warranty

Software

Students are responsible for purchasing the following software for use on their laptops.

  • (minimum) Adobe Photoshop CS3
  • (or, better) Adobe Creative Suite (current versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Acrobat)

Purchasing Laptops

Sage has worked directly with Apple Computer to set up an online store specifically for students entering our program.

Click here to access the Sage Apple Store.

Alternately, you can access the Sage Apple Store as follows:

  1. Log on to www.apple.com and click on the Store tab at the top of the screen.
  2. Click on the word Education in the list directly beneath the Store tab.
  3. Underneath Shop for yourself, click Find your college or university
  4. Enter the zip code 12208, then click Sage College of Albany in the list on the right.
  5. Accept the shopping agreement, then click Take Me There

Once inside the Apple Store, you can see a list of our basic Recommended Systems by clicking on the icon in the right-hand column. These can be reconfigured to meet your specific needs.

Apple laptops can also be purchases through educational discount through Apple vendors. In the Albany area, the Apple Store in Crossgates Mall, Castle Computers in Latham, and Comp-USA in Latham all sell Apple products. If you're outside the area, you can visit http://buy.apple.com/ to find a dealer near you.

Purchasing Software

Software may be purchased online through the Sage Apple Store or through an educational software vendor. (We recommend that students purchase through educational discount since the cost savings can be significant.) The following companies sell software at educational discount to students: