<p>The Alumni Factor surveyed alumni of about 1500 colleges, asking them thirty questions about their undergraduate experiences and financial success, and it ranked the top 277 schools. The result is an intriguing alternative to Forbes, USNews, etc. Intriguing enough that I could not help but put it up for discussion. I don't want to dismiss it as statistical noise, because it conforms to many of the anecdotes about certain colleges I have read on this forum, and I have seen posters argue about much stranger metrics.</p>
<p>Survey categories:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.alumnifactor.com/what-we-measure">https://www.alumnifactor.com/what-we-measure</a>
<a href="https://www.alumnifactor.com/why-voices-alumni-matter">https://www.alumnifactor.com/why-voices-alumni-matter</a></p>
<p>Top 10:</p>
<ol>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Washington and Lee University</li>
<li>U.S. Naval Academy</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>U.S. Military Academy</li>
<li>Rice</li>
<li>Claremont McKenna</li>
<li>Centre College</li>
<li>Coast Guard Academy</li>
<li>Citadel Military College of South Carolina</li>
</ol>
<p>Some schools, like Columbia, Chicago, and the WASP LACs, perform much worse than I had expected.</p>
<p>“The Alumni Factor’s top 10 includes Washington & Lee University (1st), Yale University (2nd), Princeton University (3rd), Rice University (4th), College of Holy Cross (5th), University of Notre Dame (6th), Middlebury College (7th), United States Naval Academy (8th), United States Military Academy (9th), and Stanford University (10th).”
<a href=“Launch of The Alumni Factor Shakes Up Traditional College Rankings With New Contenders Cracking the Top Ten”>http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/launch-of-the-alumni-factor-shakes-up-traditional-college-rankings-with-new-contenders-cracking-the-top-ten-169146996.html</a></p>
<p>That’s last year’s ranking, no?</p>
<p>That’s a commercial site you are linking to.</p>
<p>Almost 2 years ago and it was supposed to rank colleges measured on 15 different factors, including income, net worth, job opportunities, intellectual development and overall happiness. </p>
<p>Princeton Review’s “Best 378 Colleges” does something similar, including survey results from some 120,000 current students. I’ve found that resource far more helpful than the USNWR list’s questionable methodology.</p>
<p>@BrownParent Yes, this company is not as free with data as USNews is. You need to subscribe to get most of the schools’ information. The rankings can be found in the Alumni Factor’s Google book:</p>
<p><a href=“The Alumni Factor: A Revolution in College Rankings (2013-2014 Edition) - The Alumni Factor - Google Books”>The Alumni Factor: A Revolution in College Rankings (2013-2014 Edition) - The Alumni Factor - Google Books;
<p>@1980collegegrad I believe that the company plans to publish these rankings yearly.</p>
<p>This was great information, very interesting. I was able to eliminate one school from my too long list to apply to.</p>
<p>It’s an interesting list, but I note some odd listings. For instance, Mississippi State is #41, while Harvard is #35. Within Mississippi, I can see MSU having tremendous power, maybe even throughout the South. But I’m going to guess that Harvard still carries more weight nearly anywhere else, so they aren’t nearly as equal as this list makes them to be. I also imagine that a lot of Harvard grads come from money, so they can afford to go there, pursue their passions, and not necessarily worry about how much it pays. Anecdotally, a lot of Harvard grads go into public service, which doesn’t pay all that well, although the positions are highly prestigious, but you can afford to do that when backed up by a trust fund or two.</p>
<p>
More than a few end up in academia as well which is a great life but doesn’t pay stellar salaries.</p>
<p>Any income ranking that doesn’t normalize for major is worthless.</p>
<p>@MrMom62 I suspect that Harvard’s strong brand hurts it here. The disparity between its “prestige” and (the perceived) reality might explain Harvard’s poorer-than-expected performance. </p>
<p>What’s impressive is that Princeton and Yale do so well despite their sizes and the high expectations that their reputations create. (Particularly Yale, because it does well in “College Experience” and “Overall Assessment,” while Princeton trounces everyone else in the more dubious “Financial Success” category to get its overall #1 ranking.)</p>
<p>Edit: I call “Financial Success” dubious in part because: </p>
<p>(i) It privileges Old Money and has a tenuous connection to the college experience.
(ii) As GMTplus7 notes, it does not account for the distribution of majors. </p>
<p>Pretty ridiculous ranking if Navy and Army are in the Top 10.</p>
<p>@ TomsRiverParent I agree that the commercial nature of this system is somewhat dubious, but the presence of Army and Navy strikes me as one of the more legitimate aspects of the whole thing. The students are debt free, have outstanding leadership skills and are given access to government/power positions. Why shouldn’t Army and Navy be up there?</p>
<p>Not even close to Top 10.
Seriously, higher than Harvard and other Ivy’s?? Totally flawed ranking.
If you want to look at alumni, look at their net worth 20 years after graduation. Their job titles, etc.</p>
<p>@TomsRiverParent Remember that this ranking is about what alumni think of their schools. The Alumni Factor (purports to) measure the totality of the college experience: intellectual and social development, career preparation, value, and networking opportunities relative to student expectations. In a perfunctory sense, it’s the “anti-prestige” ranking. That’s why I think the good performances of Princeton and Yale (and Stanford, I suppose) are interesting.</p>
<p>Presumably, the alumni did not know that their feedback would be used to rank their schools. </p>
<p>I don’t know if two-hundred alumni should represent a college’s alumni base, but I assume that these data are more useful than the self-serving anecdotes I have read about many schools. </p>
<p>Well, 20 or 30 years ago it was harder to get into Army and Navy than the Ivies. They were the brass ring when I was going through the application process in the 80s. I know many graduates of both service academies and Ivies and would generally say the service academy grads are more globally “successful” as far as titles, influence and finances. Who knows what the landscape will look like in another 20 years, but I suspect that the qualities that lead people to service academies (high stats mixed w/ athleticism, risk acceptance and desire to serve) will still lead to as much or greater success in life than those qualities that lead people to Ivies/similar (perfectionism, work ethic, intellectualism). The service academies are definitely not right for everyone, but neither is Harvard. </p>