Choosing a college because of technology

For 25 years, the Princeton Review was the resource that many college bound seniors and parents used to compare colleges and universities when they were doing  research to select the best college to go to. This year, PC magazine partnered with the Princeton Review in search of the most wired college/university.

The magazine surveyed  the best 362 colleges from the Princeton Review and asked questions which covered technology and connectivity that they had on campus. Included in the survey were questions pertaining to academics, student resources, and infrastructure.

I am not sure if college seniors would use this as a criteria for their final selection but it sure is interesting to know what colleges do with technology. I was surprised that only 52-75% of most professors post course material online. I would think that this would now be a requirement for all professors. Several professors are now podcasting or webcasting their lectures which is great for students to review.  Many professors are using technology for online tests which students in high school don't do.

Some colleges give out a notebook to students as part of the tuition and have tech personnel fix things for free which is nice.

All in all, I think most college students want Internet connectivity in their dorms and have access to the school's library information as well. Getting course information electronically is a must as well.

Here's a list of the top 20:

#1 Villanova University

#2 M.I.T.

#3 Indiana University Bloomington

#4 Swarthmore College

#5 Creighton University

#6 University of Illinois

#7 Michigan Tech University

#8 University of Southern California

#9 Quinnipiac University

#10 University of Oklahoma

#11 United States Military Academy

#12 University of Minnesota Twin Cities

#13 St. John's University

#14 Clarkson University

#15 Temple University

#16 Stevens Institute of Technology

#17 Stanford University

#18 Eckerd College

#19 Pomona College

#20 University of Virginia

Print | posted on Wednesday, May 09, 2007 9:14 AM