Residential Planning Diploma Requirements

In order to be prepared to pursue your degree or diploma, there are a number of requirements we ask that you meet so you are ready to hit the ground running when it comes to your studies. The admissions requirements detail the prerequisites from an academic standpoint that have to be met. The technical requirements detail what you’ll need for your online learning experience.

Students seeking admission to The Art Institute of Pittsburgh — Online Division must meet the following requirements shown below.

The prospective student must be a high school graduate with a minimum, cumulative, final high school CGPA of 1.5 or higher, or hold a General Education Development (GED) Certificate, or associate's degree or higher as a prerequisite for admission.

Students entering the Residential Planning diploma program will be required to take The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Computer Literacy Testout Exam and successfully pass it. Those who do not pass the exam will be required to enroll in the Computer Literacy class (CPU101) and successfully complete it, or provide evidence that the course was taken at the college-level in the past five years, before they will be permitted to enroll. Computer Literacy credits will not count toward graduation requirements and all costs associated with the course will be the sole responsibility of the student.

Online Orientation

Each student who enrolls at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh — Online Division is required to complete an online student orientation prior to the start date of the student's first course. The online orientation helps the student become familiar with different features of the online classroom environment and prepares the student for his or her role as an active learner in the online classroom.

Software Requirements

• Adobe Acrobat Professional
• Adobe Creative Suite - includes Photoshop and Illustrator
• AutoDesk AutoCAD Full Version
• Google Sketchup (free download from sketchup.com)
• Microsoft Office Professional
• Norton Antivirus
• Windows Media Player

Minimum Technology Requirements

• PC: As a general guideline, students should have Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium; Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise, Business, Ultimate, or Home Premium (SP2 or later); or Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Home Edition (SP3 or later). Students should have 4GB of RAM and at least 10GB of available hard-disk space for installation. Student should have 1280x800 display with true color (1600x12000 with true color recommended) and a 3D class Video Card with 128 MB of memory or higher. For Windows Vista or Windows 7: Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® dual-core processor, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology; for Windows XP: Dual Core or Quad Core Processor at 2.16GHz or above or AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 1.6 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology.
• Mac: Dual Boot Only
  
  • Multicore Intel Processor
  • MAC OS X v10.5.7 or Higher
  • 4GB RAM
  • 10GB of available hard-disk space for installing; additional free space required during installation
  • 1024x768 Display (1280x800 recommended) with qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card. 16-bit color, and 256MB of VRAM
  • DVD-ROM drive
  (DUAL BOOT SPECS)
  • MAC running boot camp (Included with MAC Operating System) or Parallels
  • Windows Operating system (Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP)(Must be purchased separately) Mandatory to use PC software for Interior Design and Residential Planning courses.

Web Browser Requirements

PC: At least one of the following browsers with Java enabled:

• Internet Explorer 9.0 (recommended)
• Internet Explorer 8.0 (supported)
• Mozilla Firefox 4.0 (recommended)
• Mozilla Firefox 3.5 (supported)
• Google Chrome 5.0 and higher (supported

Mac: At least one of the following browsers with Java enabled:

• Safari 5.0 (recommended)
• Safari 4.0 (supported)
• Mozilla Firefox 4.0 (recommended)
• Mozilla Firefox 3.5 (supported)
• Google Chrome 5.0 and higher (supported)

Hardware Requirements

• CD or DVD burner
• Color Inkjet Printer
• Color Flatbed Scanner
• Digital Camera

Purchase Computer Hardware and Software

Visit Journey Ed, America's leading seller of hardware and software to students. Select from a wide variety of software programs and purchase all of your required software online - at a student discount.

Note: All courses use the latest version of the software packages required.