Infographic: College Students Need Food, Sleep, and Wi-Fi

Alongside textbooks, pizza, and shower shoes, wireless Internet access is at the top of the college students' necessities list.

According to Online Colleges, a whopping 90 percent of university attendees consider Wi-Fi essential to their educational success ? just as much as classrooms and computers.

So important, they said, that they would be willing to abstain from alcohol consumption or wear their school's rival team colors than be without wireless access. Most won't even consider a school that doesn't offer free and fast Wi-Fi.

An Online Colleges infographic breaks down the reasons students say the love Wi-Fi: because it makes school easier (79 percent) and helps them earn better grades (75 percent). In-classroom access gives 44 percent of students an added push to begin research for an assignment before the class has ended.

The Web is important outside of the lecture hall, too. When searching for a place to hang out with friends, work on a paper, or grab some grub, many students remain on the hunt for free Wi-Fi.

But powerful and portable Internet access is more than another luxury of higher education; it offers American universities a means to retain their preeminence in international research, Online Colleges said. Losing out to academic communities in other countries could have "profound implications for the American economy and society," the site said.

According to ABI Research, an increasing number of universities worldwide are investing more in Wi-Fi access points and controllers than ever before. In 2007, colleges collectively dropped $137 million for wireless Internet. This year, ABI projected upwards of $837 million ? a 611 percent increase in six years.

The Gig.U, or University Community Next Generation Innovation Project, consists of more than 30 leading research universities working with local communities to strengthen the U.S.'s role as a leader in next-generation high-speed network services. A number of colleges participate in the Gig.U program, including Stanford University, where students and faculty have gained free access to the ultra-high-speed Google Fiber network, and the University of Maine, which will build a mega high-speed Gigabit Main Street Internet Network in the communities surrounding the campus.

For a closer look at college students' relationship with Wi-Fi, check out the full infographic below.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415721,00.asp?kc=PCRSS05079TX1K0000993

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