The Chronicle of Higher Education has reported on the University of Virginia's annual survey of the technology choices of its entering class. Since we blogged on this topic here in January, it's interesting to compare results. In general, trends evident at Lawrence are also evident at UVa, only more strongly. In only one area -- preference for the Macintosh -- did freshman Lawrentians outscore their counterparts at UVa.
(Subscribers to the Chronicle of Higher Education can read the story ("The Death of the Desktop") online. The University of Virginia's published data are also available online.)
Virginia reports that only 4 of 3092 students surveyed (0.1 %) did not bring a computer with them to campus in the fall. At Lawrence, 10 of 345 students surveyed (2.9%) did not bring a computer.
Like Lawrentians, University of Virginia students overwhelmingly prefer laptops to desktops. Out of 3088 computers brought by entering students, only 90 (2.9%) brought desktops. At Lawrence, 15% of freshmen say their computer is a desktop machine.
And as at Lawrence, preference for the Macintosh operating system over Windows is stronger at the University of Virginia than in the general population. 19.6% of UVa freshmen use Macs, whereas one-quarter of Lawrence freshmen do so. Macintosh users in the general population total only 6%.
Finally, iPods and other MP3 players are also popular at the University of Virginia, where 77.3% of freshmen brought one with them; at Lawrence, the percentage is slightly lower -- 73%.
Because UVa has been collecting similar statistics for about ten years, it's interesting to review the trends, which you can do here.