Top 50 Wireless College Campus' in the USA 2005 Results

It's very important to be connected to the web while on campus as universities move more and more to distributing grades, class material and even full class lectures online. So whichuniversity makesit easiest to send an email to your professor while eating lunch in the student union?

The survey for top 50 wireless schools was conducted by Intel and according to their survey Ball State University in Muncie Indiana tops the list. 98% of the top 50 campuses are covered by a wireless network. That's up from 64% in 2004.

While last year many campuses had minimal wireless network deployment, this year's survey reveals that students are more likely to be enjoying the benefits of campus life, unwired. On average, 98 percent of the top 50 campuses are covered by a wireless network, up from 64 percent in 2004, with 74 percent having 100 percent wireless network coverage on campus, up from just 14 percent last year.

2005 Rank University City, State 1 Ball State University Muncie, IN 2 Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI 3 University of Akron Akron, OH 4 Dartmouth College Hanover, NH 5 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 6 Bridgewater State College Bridgewater, MA 7 St. John's University Queens, NY 8 Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 9 Bryant University Smithfield, RI 10 Trinity University San Antonio, TX 11 Sacred Heart University Fairfield, CT 12 University of Central Oklahoma Edmond, OK 13 California State University, Monterey Bay Seaside, CA 14 United States Military Academy West Point, NY 15 Purdue University West Lafayette, IN 16 Drexel University Philadelphia, PA 17 University of Dayton Dayton, OH 18 Oklahoma Christian University Oklahoma, OK 19 Northern Michigan University Marquette, MI 20 Coppin State University Baltimore, MD 21 University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 22 SUNY College of Technology at Alfred Alfred, NY 23 United States Air Force Academy USAFA, CO 24 Winona State University Winona, MN 25 College of Charleston Charleston, SC 26 Dallas Baptist University Dallas, TX 27 Rockhurst University Kansas City, MO 28 Georgia College &amp; State University Milledgeville, GA 29 Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC 30 DePauw University Greencastle, IN 31 Azusa Pacific University Azusa, CA 32 Centenary College Hackettstown, NJ 33 Mills College Oakland, CA 34 Iona College New Rochelle, NY 35 University of Houston-Downtown Houston, TX 36 University of South Carolina Aiken Aiken, SC 37 Charleston Southern University Charleston, SC 38 Occidental College Los Angeles, CA 39 Hampton University Hampton, VA 40 Greenville College Greenville, IL 41 University of Washington, Bothell Bothell, WA 42 Webb Institute Glen Cove, NY 43 Northwest Nazarene University Nampa, ID 44 Lawrence Technological University Southfield, MI 45 American University Washington, D.C. 46 Queens College/CUNY Flushing, NY 47 Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Needham, MA 48 College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA 49 Colorado College Colorado Springs, CO 50 St. Cloud State University St. Cloud, MN <!--[/generic-body]--><!-- ** / Table ** --><!-- /Main Table -->

Survey findings are based on the percentage of each college campus that is covered by wireless technology, the number of undergraduate students and the computer to student ratio for each school. The study examined schools with student bodies of more than 1,000. Data was gathered through university interviews, review of public documents and additional industry sources; the "America's Most Connected Campuses" ranking conducted by Princeton Review and published in Forbes; and an online survey that schools completed between May 1 and Sept. 1, 2005, which was executed by the Center for Digital Education and Intel Corporation.

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what the heck happened to schools on the West coast? It's predominantly schools east of the Rockies when you'd think the wireless wave would move from west to east.

Man, I sure wish there had been wireless coverage over campus when I went to school, I know that would have been sweet during group meetings in the library or while eating lunch some place on campus. Oh, and for using IM anywhere and everywhere and online gaming of course

 

Woooooohhhhoooooo, we are there. Number 16 hip hip horray

That's good news for my university, they are really trying everything to climb up the rankings of any university rating available. And they are doing one hell of a job. Actually I was just reading in the university paper that we now have music download service from iTunes and Napster, free for students living in the dorms and at a small fee for students living outside. With super nodes situated on campus for extra speeds.

Well I can vouch for us. We have 802.11g all over campus with excellent reception at speeds reaching over 3mbits for wireless access (depends on time of day, but never falls below 3mbit). And the wired network is much faster, actually too fast to even make use of! I just wish I lived closer to campus to be able to connect to their wireless network all the time.

And you know what is the best thing about these ratings. Our next door neighbors didn't make the top 50

 

Well it's good that reports from the field verify the standings! Who's next door, is that UPenn or Villanova?

 

UPenn. It's good to come ahead of them once in a while. They have the better larger campus, the better libraries ... So this is good news!

 

If they did a Canadian version of this, I'll guarantee you University of Waterloo won't make it to the list --- it has one of the worst wireless networking support on campus. Even though you can find a signal pretty much anywhere, the real problem is the fact when there are too many people connecting to a single router.

Me and others around me tried to connect and reconnect and our computer can't acquire the IP address of the network, while only a few laptop with a wireless connection located about 2 metres away from us is already surfing the net.

 

Again Illinios lags in something. Only one campus, but its at least better than other colleges. But we are in 40th. Boy abaxter, you were right, were the heck is thw west coast!

 

where is Temple University.... aka (Ghetto U) come on! I guess the people who gave the survey didnt want to splurge and get bullet proof vests.

 

Yay, I go to Dartmouth - #4!!!
Everyone here knows that it's not "email," it's "blitz"

 

oh man, that sucks. It's great when a location provides "free wireless" but when they don't provide enough access points to support more than 8 users at a time then you're going to have angry users that can't connect. Las Vegas airport has "free" wi-fi except good luck connecting, you can never acquire an IP.

 

Drexel #16 !!!

Im with qwester on the great reception all around campus. Qwester whats all this about cheap music downloads from iTunes? I dont read the Triangle much.

 

congrats to Dartmouth, you guys pay enough for tuition that I'd hope they put that money into something useful

 

Well I just saw it today in the oct. 7 Triangle edition (first time I read it in month's ) when I was having my lunch in Bossone Hall. I tried IRT's website and there is nothing there, although it specifically says the service started on oct. 6. If I figure it out I'll let you know. I am going to ask about it.

The article is on the front page: "USGA, IRT launch music filesharing service"

BTW pick up the Triangle, there is an article that lists us as one of the top universities when it comes to most paid presidents. I was shocked at the figure!!! $805,000!!!

 

so all of the tuition students pays goes to wireless networks and the president. sweet. the president probably likes wi-fi and pushed that initiative through, so don't complain too much.

 

Holla for Carnegie Mellon.... Too bad they limit our Wireless bandwidth to 750MB/day...

 

They limit you and you're ahead of us I cannot believe this

Are you also limited on the wired network? What if you need to download software that is gigs in size? Do you request special service? That's how it worked at my old university (not in the US).

 

I'm trying to figure out why the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio was not ranked -- we're serving 5,000 students on a residential/commuter campus with a wholly wired and wireless network. Though we have the usual issues with too many users hitting some of our 260 access points, we're proud of our connectivity and service to students. Just a plug...I'm the CIO there.

 

I congratulate them on having lots of wireless, but I don’t see the point in having wireless outside of buildings. Its not really comfortable working on a laptop on the lawn.

 

Yeah we are limited on the wired net also... except it is 2 GB per day... If we need software the school either already has it, someone on campus has it (i.e. the prof has a server/webspace setup) *which campus to campus bw doesn't count towards your limit*, or you can request for more bandwidth.

gecko... the main reason the try to get WiFi outside is because *especially for a Tech School like CMU* it encourages people to go outside

 

Take a look below the standings table in the article for the right sources to contact to get on this survey. We don't conduct the actual survey, Intel does that in conjunction with Princeton Review and Forbes. Since you have over 5,000 students then you should be included as part of the survey.

 

While I congratulate all the schools that are on the list and the fortunate souls that attend these schools, it is a mind boggling survey when your objective is to measure how much campus area is covered by wireless access but the surveyor use the number of students attending school as a threshold -- anyone see the disconnection here? You can cram a bunch of students in a small campus and get good coverage while school that has large campus (compared to their number of students, such as schools that have farms for biology or forest major, for example) will be more difficulty to provide coverage. Consequently, the results will be more biased to schools with smaller campus.

 

no doubt, you make a good point skyshade. Makes me think about the school I went to (Ohio State) and I can't imagine the expense and challenge in "blanketing" that school, there's an Agriculture campus that's a mile away from the main campus and there's 40,000+ students on a vast campus area, a river that splits the campus in half and a large hospital area. But I suppose you could argue this is where small schools have an advantage, they can pull off this kind of technology overhaul.

 

Well one of the reasons I chose CMU was because they have a smaller campus... but that is just the main buildings. There is a school of science that is a 15 min walk from the main campus and the dorms are on the outside perimiter *for the mostpart*

I think the official quote on WiFi coverage is that there is coverage in a one mile radius of the main administrative building.