I’ve been running Mac Law Students for a year and a half, and I attend a school that uses SofTest without Boot Camp support. You think I’d have gone to the IT department and raised hell by now. But I haven’t.
I have corresponded with them briefly by email, and have read their reasons for not supporting Boot Camp. Unfortunately, even with Boot Camp support, I’d still be screwed. I use a PowerBook, so Boot Camp is out of the question. So unless the school drops exam software altogether or picks another vendor (highly unlikely, given that these arrangements are set up as multi-year contracts), Boot Camp support does me no good.
By now you’re thinking, “What kind of Mac evangelist are you?” I am, in fact, not as dedicated as Michael Katz, who runs a Mac user group at his school. Michael put together a document for the school administration, outlining how various other law schools handle exams. His document, like the Exam Software page on MLS, reveals that while some schools don’t support Macs during exams, many do. The Katz Document goes into more detail about how and why each of the schools in his survey (which is a subset of the Exam Software list) answer the “do you support Macs” question.
For those of you who may already be trying to convince a reticent administration of the need to support Mac use during exams, you’re in luck. Michael has agreed to let me distributed The Katz Document to those who inquire. If you want a copy, just let me know.
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[...] our IT department refused to revisit the subject after a year and a half, I conducted my own survey of law schools in California and across the country.The result? 2/3 supported Macs, and more were opening up to the idea of supporting Apple laptops [...]