New College of Florida
- Computers

Technology on-Campus: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The wifi tends to be very hit or miss: My first year there were maybe two outages the entire year, but my second year, there were outages two or three times a week. I'd suggest getting an ethernet cable, especially if you live in Pei (which most freshmen do), since it's particularly weak there.

Printing on campus is very accessible. The library is open from 8am-1am, plus there's a student-regulated printing center that is open 24-hours, though it's often broken. Also, there are plenty of students who have personal printers who are happy to let you use them - we're a very friendly, community-centered campus.

The IT department is effectively useless. If you have any trouble with your personal computer, you're better off taking it to (a very reasonably priced) store about 5 minutes off campus.

Network Reliability and Speed

Three weeks before Fall exams, the internet was intermittent for about four days straight, and nothing seemed to fix it. IT was horribly unhelpful and unfriendly. Students found themselves forced off campus to do work. This is a running theme at New College. The network has frequent outages, usually limited to the dorm wireless, but sometimes including the wired connections. The Pei dorms have terrible wireless connectivity, although this is usually remedied by buying a really long ethernet cord.

Library Has Many Good Options and Wifi Is Everywhere

Our Library is shared with USF Sarasota campus, so there are tons of resources for a school of ~800 people. The network is as reliable and fast as I've ever seen in a semi-public place (bandwidth can get crowded at certain times, but, you can get a wireless router to alleviate the problem).