Bowdoin offers and supports a large variety of software for students, faculty and staff.
Some of this software is provided free of charge to current faculty, staff and students as allowed by our licensing agreements.
Students will receive access to most software licensed by the college on their laptops or iPads provided through the Digital Excellence Commitment. Some software can be accessed on personal devices or from a web browser without the need for a Bowdoin-issued device.
Please note: Incoming students will not gain access to most software titles until the middle of July before the start of their first semester.
We have more than 500 software titles in use across campus. The following is a list of the most commonly used software programs at Bowdoin. You can also see a listing of all software provided in our computer labs (MacOS and Windows Virtual Environments).
Most Bowdoin licensed software is easily accessed through Company Portal and Self-Service applications. Please see the "Related Articles" section on this page for more information.
General Software
|
| Software title |
Type of license |
Faculty & Staff Home Use? |
Student Use? |
|
| Adobe Acrobat Professional |
Site |
Yes |
Yes |
Acrobat DC Professional is now available to all faculty, full-time staff and students for campus and home computer use and for iPadOS. |
| Adobe Creative Suite |
Site |
Yes |
Yes |
The complete Adobe CS Suite is now available to all faculty, full-time staff and students for campus and home computer use and for iPadOS. |
| Apple Mac Operating System |
Site |
Yes |
Yes |
|
| Endnote |
Site |
Yes |
Yes |
Available from Self Service for MacOS. Windows users may click the link and complete the form to request download. |
| Microsoft Office Suite |
Site |
Yes |
Yes |
Includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, OneNote, and Teams |
| Microsoft Windows Operating System |
Site |
Yes |
Yes* |
Windows 11 is provided through OnTheHub. Registration and eligibility required. You must use your Bowdoin email address to register. |
| Microsoft Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection |
Site |
Yes |
Yes |
Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection is for Windows and macOS operating systems. It is included with all running versions of Windows 11 and installed automatically on all Bowdoin-issued Macs. In addition, all faculty, staff and students running Windows 11 on their personal machines have access to Defender by default. |
| Crowdstrike |
Faculty and Staff |
Yes |
No |
Crowdstrike is the College's anti-malware software for faculty and staff. |
Academic Software
|
| Software title |
Type of license |
Faculty & Staff Home Use? |
Student Use? |
|
| ArcPro |
Site |
Yes |
Yes |
Available through the Virtual Lab Environment for students or by using ArcPro Online. |
| Chemdraw |
Site |
Yes |
Yes |
|
| eViews |
concurrent use |
No |
No |
|
| Finale |
concurrent use |
No |
Yes |
|
| Matlab |
concurrent use |
Yes |
Yes |
MatLab is available for macOS, Windows, on an iPad, and from a web browser using your Bowdoin email and password. |
| Mathematica |
Site |
Yes |
Yes |
|
| Notability for iPadOS / macOS |
Site |
Yes |
Yes |
Available for iPadOS and macOS. Must be installed through Self Service and not from the App Store directly. |
| NVivo |
|
Yes |
Yes |
NVivo is available in the Windows virtual lab environment for student use. |
| Graphad Prism |
Class Use |
Yes |
No |
The college owns a small number of licenses for individual and classroom use. A per-class use license is available but must be requested but the instructing faculty member. |
| R and R-Studio |
Free |
Yes |
Yes |
|
| SPSS |
Site |
No |
Yes |
|
| Stata |
Concurrent use |
No |
Yes |
|
Information Technology enforces updates on all student, faculty, and staff computers to ensure they remain safe by applying all operating system updates, security patches and application updates. Many of these are available through specific OS and application update engines. (Ex: Apple updates come through the Mac App store, Windows updates come through the Windows Update application). Many apps also have their own update technologies that can be leveraged to stay current.