Villanova is a private Catholic university founded by the Order of St. Augustine in 1842. This Pennsylvania college regularly appears at the top of high-tech college listings. Students at Villanova get their own laptop upon freshman registration and a replacement model after their sophomore year. Nursing students get PDAs, while engineering students get a tablet computer. All devices are pre-loaded with all required software to complete the student's courses. Lectures are available via download, and students can manage their class schedule, take exams and get their grades over the university's network.
Villanova is often at the top of the high-tech list because of its famous finance lab. The only one of its kind, the finance lab works like a trading floor on Wall Street where students get to use all of the tools available to real Wall Street brokers in real time.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is among the most high-tech colleges in the world. This school takes its computing seriously. With more than 3,000 wireless Internet access points on campus, MIT is among the largest areas on earth served by a single wireless network. The network, known as Athena, is campus-wide and accessible from anywhere on campus by students or teachers. Athena is also an acceptable way for students to connect to the web from their personal computers.
MIT is also the creator of OpenCourseWare, an online database of downloadable course materials available for free to any user in the world. Most of the MIT faculty participates and more than 1,400 courses are available online.
The University of Southern California (USC) regularly appears in the list of most high-tech colleges in the nation. USC generally gets recognized for its classroom technology. All general assignment classrooms are equipped with Internet connectivity and a projector and screen that support connection to computers. USC also has high-resolution video conferencing available in its libraries as well as meeting rooms and satellite campuses. The campus offers an open access wireless network as well.
Swarthmore College is a campus of just 1,400 students on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Despite its size, this college is on the cutting edge of technology when compared to any other college in the nation---large or small. This campus is filled with computers. Nearly every public area has a dedicated machine. The school has a Media Lounge and Video Pit, and dorm lounges, coffee shops and more offer computers where students can access information at any time. Online or phone tech support is available instantly 24 hours per day. A program called Blackboard is also in regular use on the Swarthmore campus. Teachers post assignments and discussions online in lieu of handing out materials in classes. The school hosts e-mail and Web accounts for students and groups as well as loans items such as digital cameras.