<p>My son is an incoming freshman. We were both surprised and dismayed that only Windows OS laptops (or a Macbook booted only with Windows 7) are allowed. This is certainly different that other schools we visited, where students were allowe to use either Windows OS or Mac OS. </p>
<p>It would have been useful to know this during the college selection process.</p>
<p>You think that would have been a deal breaker on a college?</p>
<p>He is heavily into Mac OS and iOS and is writing apps. It would have been one more criteria to consider. There were several good, private schools with strong engineering programs that he considered. Most of them allowed for either OS.</p>
<p>My daughter attends Dayton and uses her Mac as do most of her roommates and friends. During orientation he will be directed to a website with downloads that are some kind of security protocol. Both Mac and PC versions are offered. Never had a problem. We too were confused by their request to use a pc. Already own a Mac, and did not want to buy another computer. Their reasoning–that Mac users are unprepared for viruses does not make sense.</p>
<p>For the ECE engineering department, it is more complicated. We have had numerous e-mail exchanges with staff, and have discussed running Windows 7 in VM Fusion on a MacBook and running Windows 7 using Bootcamp. In the end, because of department specific software and driver issues, the conclusion was to be safe and use a Windows laptop. This is different than engineering departments at West Coast schools we visited. I did further checking and found that the engineering departments at some highly ranked schools support both Macs and PC.</p>
<p>One bright spot - the people we dealt with were very helpful and attentive.</p>
<p>Current student here… I know a lot of people with Macs. The reason they tell you not to bring one is because the tech shop can’t help you if you have a problem with your Mac, you’ll have to have it sent out to another shop. They require Windows because computers are a large component in some classes and they want to make sure everyone has access to the same things. My geology lab relied heavily on computers and the sole Mac user had a few problems trying to find Mac versions of software, but came out alright in the end.</p>
<p>For some students, getting a Mac was a no-brainer because of the obvious pros. My freshman year roommate was a math/violin performance double degree student and had a mac to run her music programs. As far as I know, she’s never had a problem.</p>
<p>Bottom line: you can certainly bring one, but if you run into any trouble you won’t get <em>any</em> tech support on campus.</p>