Publications ranging from The New York Times to Network World magazine have previously lauded Dartmouth College's technological capacities, but the College received no applause from The Princeton Review last Friday, when the company made no mention of Dartmouth in its third annual list of the Top 25 Most Connected Campuses.
This year's list was compiled based on the results of a 361-college technology survey. The test prep and guidebook company's criteria included wireless Internet access, percentage of undergraduates who own a computer, breadth of the computer science curriculum and ability to perform administrative tasks online.
Ivy League schools Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania were among the schools that made the list, as were Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, Syracuse University, University of Colorado at Boulder and Villanova University.
Vice president and publisher of The Princeton Review, Rob Franek, said the schools on the list showed leadership in preparing students for life in the digital age.
"Students who understand the value of technology to both their career prospects and overall quality of life will want to pay special attention to the schools on our list," Franek said.
David Bucciero, the director of technical services at the College, called omitting Dartmouth from the list a "disservice."
"We were the first college to be 100 percent wireless," Bucciero said.
Bucciero said Dartmouth's absence from the list does not signify that the College is lagging behind in technological advancement.
"I don't believe we are lacking, I believe we are ahead of the forefront," Bucciero said.
Computer Science Professor Hany Farid said Dartmouth is doing a good job preparing students for the digital world.
"I think the sciences in particular are pretty good about being aware of the role of computers in the modern age," Farid said.
Among the most heavily weighted Princeton Review criteria were whether the school streams audio or video of its courses online, and whether students can take classes entirely online -- services that Dartmouth generally does not offer.
"I think that undeniably, education is moving in the direction of making more and more classes available online for students," said Franek. In addition to helping students catch up on missed classes, Franek said he believes that technology may soon allow online classroom discussion groups to supplement the classroom experience.
Farid praised MIT's program of streaming their courses online for the public and hopes that Dartmouth may follow in that direction. "I think it's a great idea that knowledge should be freely available to anybody," Farid said, adding that making courses free to the public online does not take anything away from enrolled students.
Although Dartmouth has the technology to do so, Bucciero insists that it would require greater infrastructure and support from the College in order to happen. Streaming video is something that Dartmouth's technical services have been testing, Bucciero said. Farid, however, said that courses taught entirely online represent a failed model of education, and hopes that Dartmouth will not move in that direction.
The Princeton Review's top 25 list is available at http://www.forbes.com/connected.
