Yahoo Magazine Rates Colorado State University as ‘most Wired’ in Colorado

Yahoo magazine has ranked Colorado State University as the "most wired" university in the state of Colorado and 42nd in the nation.

The survey also named the University of Colorado as the only other university in the state to be ranked in the top 100, trailing Colorado State at 49th.

Thirteen hundred universities across the nation were surveyed for Yahoo’s annual "Most Wired Colleges" rankings. The survey examined how universities have incorporated network technologies into campus life. Rankings were based on infrastructure, student resources, Web portals, e-learning, tech support and wireless access.

Colorado State received one of the highest scores in the survey, an "A+" for student resources, second only to Dartmouth College. To receive an "A" ranking in this category, students need to have access to nearly all university administrative services via the Web; computer labs must be state-of-the-art; students must have network file space; and students must have one or more options for purchasing computers at a discount.

Wireless access was another area where the university earned a high score. In this category, Colorado State was noted as a pioneer because of its efforts to make wireless networks available in many academic buildings and because the university plans to expand coverage to the rest of the campus.

"We’ve lead a charge to be particularly progressive in the area of technology in response to our students’ needs," said Pat Burns, director of Academic Computing and Network Services at Colorado State. "We’ve installed wireless networks in all of the core buildings on campus and added nine cafeterias in residence halls to that list this summer."

E-learning also garnered a strong score, reinforcing an assessment by Kiplinger’s magazine that Colorado State has one of the best online MBA programs in the country.

The Yahoo survey pointed out that students at the university are able to take tests online and computer science students can attend class from any Web-enabled PC around the world.

Yahoo noted the importance of the annual rankings because of the crucial role that technology plays in higher learning today.