Iowa State dropped dramatically in the third-annual 100 Most Wired Colleges ranking by Yahoo!’s Internet Life Web site.

In 1998, the company ranked ISU 48th in the survey, but this year ISU dropped to 81st.

Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland topped the survey, up from 63rd last year.

The Yahoo! survey ranks universities in four main categories: hardware, academics, free services and miscellaneous.

Subcategories in which there were major differences between the top universities and ISU were the number of students with dedicated Internet connections in their dorm rooms and the number of computers per 100 students.

One hundred percent of the Case Western Reserve University’s on-campus undergraduates were registered for dedicated network connections, compared with 36 percent at ISU.

Wake Forest University, which finished third overall, was tops in computer-to-student ratio, with 81.2 computers per 100 students.

ISU reported 12.43 computers per 100 students.

Diana Pounds, internal communications director of University Relations, attributed the drop to three factors.

“They added a lot more universities to the survey [this year],” she said. “This increases competition.”

Yahoo! reported that its survey pool was 30 percent larger this year.

The specific criteria and the weighting of those criteria also have changed since last year, Pounds said.

She said third factor is that the competition is becoming tougher.

“Iowa State, no matter what its ranking is this year, is better wired than it was last year at this time,” she said.

In fact, ISU ranked second among Big 12 universities on the list. The University of Colorado was listed 61st, 20 places better than ISU.

Despite the drop, Pounds said ISU makes its computer decisions based on the needs of students, not Yahoo!’s ranking.

“So, some years that might help you in the rankings; some years it might not,” she said. “We are going to keep moving trying to find ways to improve the services here.”