Supplies and laptop recommendations

Required and recommended supplies for Faculty of Engineering students

Required supplies

  • Basic stationery supplies (pens, pencils, ruler, paper, etc.).
  • Scientific calculator.
  • An electronic device (or devices), such as a cellphone, that can:
    • Authenticate on Duo.
    • Browse the internet (for example, to enable participation in live polling during class).
    • Capture images of written work (for submission to electronic dropboxes).

See below for additional program-specific requirements.

Recommended

  • You will need access to a computer. While we provide computer laboratories and terminal servers that meet this need, most students obtain their own. See below for some guidance.
  • Many students take notes using a tablet and stylus. Choice of device is personal preference.

Necessary supplies for Architecture students

The Design Studio team has compiled a list of essential supplies that each first year student is required to have.

Laptop recommendations for Engineering students

Specific recommendations for:

In the remaining departments, laptops are not required but are very useful.

A new laptop should:

  • Be light enough to carry regularly.
  • Have a hinge that is going to last for years - avoid plastic cases.
  • Have a battery life that will last a long time.  Several brands have a 10 to 12-hour battery life now. You will spend long hours at university, and you may want to carry a charger around with you, but there are not a lot of places to plug in.
  • A minimum of 8GB of RAM will suffice for existing laptops. If you are purchasing new, then we recommend 16GB RAM - as this will become necessary within the lifetime of a laptop.
  • For storage, we recommended an SSD drive with at least 240 GB. Note that you will have 5 TB of OneDrive space in the cloud from your @uwaterloo.ca Microsoft 365 account, but remember that this requires a connection to a network.

Operating system (OS)

Please ensure that the OS is up to date on all of your devices.

Laptop OS:

  • Windows is the most common laptop OS amongst Engineering students, and is the OS used in the majority of Engineering's student computer labs.
  • Windows is required on laptops for some majors, including Architectural, Civil, Environmental, and Geological Engineering.
  • MacOS is also popular with students in some majors.
  • Linux is used on some computing servers, and learning to use those servers is part of the curriculum for some majors (e.g., ECE, SE). No majors require Linux on laptops. There are a minority of students who use Linux on laptops even though not required to do so. Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution on campus.

Tablet OS:

  • Any tablet OS (e.g., Android, iOS, Windows) is usable in any major program of study.

Phone OS:

  • Any phone OS (e.g., Android, iOS) is usable in any major program of study.