One of the draws of coming back to school is the Super Fast Internet Connection.  At Columbia, we boast a roughly 10 megabits per second internet connection for both uploading and downloading.

Sound like gibberish?  For reference, consider that a typical MP3 (music file) is about 48 megabits in size, so it would take about 5 seconds to download.

We were curious how our speeds compare to other top schools, so we pestered our million friends across the country.

Just this once, we bow to our friends in New Haven…

 
bandwidth small

…and extend our sympathies to our continually slow compatriots in Providence. Click on the graph for a larger version. A few technical caveats after the jump.

Speeds were measured using speedtest.net on an Ethernet (wired, not wireless) connection.  Speeds do vary with time of day and network traffic, but it is difficult to correct for that.  In addition, the distance between the tester and the SpeedTest server varies with each location, which can affect the outcome.