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We looked at the whole gamut of laptops, from ultraportables to desktop replacements, to find those most suited to a range of careers. We took into account processor speed, screen size, portability, and all sorts of features and capabilities and came up with suggestions for 12 major-specific laptops that every recent grad (and current student) should know about. Whether you majored in economics or leisure studies, we’ve got the laptop for you.

Your Major: General Studies / Undeclared. We’re not sure how you managed to get through college without actually declaring your major, but we salute you. If you need a solid, mainstream laptop for whatever undefined career you are about to enter, try the HP Pavilion dv6500t. This top-tier budget laptop comes loaded with features and provides a very comfortable user experience. Considering its low price tag, it performs well with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 120GB hard drive. A brilliant 15.4-inch screen and snazzy design round out this solid performer.

Your Major: Film. Film editors and video producers need a laptop with plenty of hard-drive space with which to work on their many projects. The Toshiba Satellite A305-S6845 has two hard drives totaling 400GB, which should be enough for even your four-hour feature documentary about the life of Victoria Woodhull. Other features that complement the cavernous drive space include a built-in dual-layer DVD burner with LabelFlash technology, as well as three ways of outputting video to an external display: S-Video-Out, VGA-Out, and HDMI-Out. Inputs include a FireWire port and a 4-in-1 card reader (SD, xD, MS, MS Pro).