<p>Rate of giving says much of school satisfaction and enthusiasm. Those items may be of particular concern to high school seniors and parents interested in those qualities. Do you agree?</p>
<p>University Alumni Giving Rate (ranking by US News)</p>
<p>I don't know. I don't see alumni giving as a sign of anything except good (and expensive) alumni marketing on the part of the school, and perhaps the income levels of the alumni themselves.</p>
<p>To me, there are MUCH more important things to look at as a potential student or parent. The percentage of alumni giving money to the school doesn't tell me anything about the experience MY child will have.</p>
<p>Are you going to be inclined to give to a school if you had an unsatisfactory experience there? I think not. On the other hand, would not the opposite be true?</p>
<p>Are you going to be inclined to give to a school if your memories are filled with enthusiasm? I think so.</p>
<p>I chose rate of giving as a measure (rather than amount of giving) because even those giving $10 dollars (or a nominal amount) are counted.</p>
<p>
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I chose rate of giving as a measure (rather than amount of giving) because even those giving $10 dollars (or a nominal amount) are counted.
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And don't think schools don't know it! How many of us have gotten a call from the 'ol alma mater where they ask for some contribution, *any*contribution? </p>
<p>The problem with this measure, as with so many other things, is that it doesn't operate in a vacuum. People & institutions change their behavior in response to incentives. Use EC's in admissions and darned if every kid isn't out there getting ECs to build their app. In economics this is called "the law of unintended consequences". If there was a way to count completely unsolicited contributions, in which people just called up and offered money, that would reflect what alphacdcd wants to measure. But instead the measure is percentage of alums giving, and many colleges go to great lengths to make sure this number is high. I think a lot of the difference you see between numbers reported by various schools reflect more the importance the school assigns to having a high number, and less the satisfaction of alums. If Brown decided it wanted to pass Dartmouth on this measure, I bet they could easily do it.</p>
<p>Here's another measure that gives another coarse look at alum satisfaction. What percentage are involved in alum groups, and what percentage attend their college reunion?</p>
<p>Alumni "memories" and "satisfaction" say absolutely nothing about what is happening on campus today. Someone could have great "memories" of a school but not have stepped on campus in years. I don't see how that relates to a student's experience there today or next year.</p>
<p>Also, schools with larger marketing budgets are able to pester alumni more, boosting their percentages above schools (like public insititutions") that don't have or have decided not to spend money on huge marketing budgets. (I'd love to know the alumni marketing/development budgets of the schools on that list - I bet they are all huge)</p>
<p>Finally, it is common for many schools manipulate their alumni giving ratio's in order to appear better than they really are (both for the US News Rankings and also to put pressure on other alumni to donate). Example: some schools "drop" alumni who haven't contributed in a certain time period from their alumni giving count --- therefore only giving a percentage of those alumni who have given in the past, not ALL alumni. There is NO uniformity in how these numbers are measured and reported by schools. </p>
<p>In short, I would not put a huge value on alumni giving as an tool for weighing the college choice my children make. There are much more important indicators of CURRENT quality and student experience out there.</p>
<p>Can you cite anything to support your view of college giving/endowment manipulations or fraud? The schools on thist list have very large endowments - the money had to come from somewhere!</p>
<p>Also, that is my point - people give according to their personal experience. So when you have large numbers giving, that tells you something.</p>
<p>Yes, it tells you that the schools development and alumni office is doing a good job of marketing. It does not tell you anything about the experience of CURRENT (or future) students on campus.</p>
<p>You ask for a citation. Get a hold of College Unranked published by the education Conservancy and read the essay by the president of Pomona college on how colleges manipulate their data. Or, get access to the Chronicle of Higher Education and do a search for articles (there have been many) on how colleges market their alumni giving programs. In the same publication, you will also find that some colleges report one number to the USNews about alumni giving and another to their bond rating agencies if you look deep enough.</p>
<p>And yes, the schools on the list have very large endowments - but many of those schools are also several centuries old and have been building those endowments for a long time.</p>
<p>Important to point out that this list is not an absolute ranking. It ignores a lot of colleges across the country with higher alumni giving rates. it's simply a RE-ranking of colleges already in the top tier based on broader criteria, and includes just universities. Lots of colleges have have giving rates above some of the ones listed. Most of the liberal arts colleges in the Top 50, for example. And some other ones not there: Albion College. Drew University. Doane College (NE). Lawrence U. Central Missouri State. Lane College in TN. Nearly all the women's colleges.</p>
<p>I think alumni giving is an interesting piece of informaton, so let's also give props to colleges who do well in this area.</p>
<p>I agree 100% that it is a reflextion of satisfaction. On two fronts: your experience there and how you feel the school is doing today. Often letters in the alumni magazine tell why people are and are not giving, people feel very connected forever to certain colleges. Surveys at reunion times also show that donations are tied to feelings about the school.</p>
<p>Well, percentage of alumni contributing is less a proxy for wealth than high SAT scores are. ;)</p>
<p>(At my alma mater, it is a variety of religious fanaticism. They might even pray for the death of the non-givers, in order to increase the percentage. But, on the whole, why not? What better things are folks going to do with their money?)</p>
<p>I will agree that alumni giving does reflect some measure of alumni satisfaction... BUT I will disagree that alumni satisfaction is the most influential factor in that number.</p>
<p>Parents have pointed out some factors in alumni satisfaction; no need to repeat. I think, however, that some have been left out, such as:
*percentage of legacies. If the parent donates, and the kid gets in, both parent and kid will probably donate.
*inversely proportional to percentage of students who receive advanced degrees. About 80% of grads from my alma mater go to graduate or professional school - and trust me, even coughing up a few dollars when you are thousands in grad school debt is hard. Furthermore, students now have two alma maters - undergrad and grad. Some of them might donate to the grad instead, simply because it is more recent or has more of a bearing on their career. This also relates to the wealth factor - wealthy alums are more likely to donate. </p>
<p>I'll also note that, for some reason, liberal arts colleges seem to have much higher alumni giving rates. Williams is around 60%. The school I'm at now is right near there, too.</p>
<p>Final factor: cost of the college. I'm serious - my alma mater is so expensive that most people feel as if they've given them enough money already. They also have a "nickle and dime to death" attitude (slowly changing), which really makes it hard to want to cough up funds. That has very little to do with student satisfaction overall (academics, professors, social life, other students, grad school placement - all phenomenal) - just a small irritation now and then. Not something that would be determinative in college choice, but probably more relevant than you would believe. I compare my current l.s. with my alma mater - the former having roughly twice the alumni giving rate of the latter - and also see huge differences in fiscal philosophy. The alma mater charged separately for everything - phone service, printing costs, $5 or $7 to see on-campus performances (as the groups had to RENT out the buildings), you name it. Parking pass is almost eight times the cost of the one here. That's on top of a huge bill up front. I think they are finally getting the point by starting to lump everything together in one bill. My current school does that - which is phenomenal. It's one bill, up front, and then you never see another one. Ever. Sure, they probably hit me up for an extra $100 or $500 initially, but it's barely noticable then. Psychogically, it beats having to pay that money out throughout the year. Anyway, the giving rate here is much higher.</p>
<p>One of my alma maters is constantly calling me to give money, more than others. This type of focused effort by the school undoubtedly influences the % of alumni that contribute. So IMO the school's own marketing efforts are a contributing factor.</p>
<p>The wealth of the alumni body, and their employers, is also a very significant factor, I believe. I myself have been more willing, and able, to contribute during periods where I was making more money than during periods when I wasn't. There was a time when I was working for a company that matched all gifts, and at that time I found myself going to the "high contributer" functions, etc. I've not been back since I left that type of employer. I think you'd find a direct link between Wall Street employment and contributions.</p>
<p>My daughter is attending a school where many graduates wind up in nonprofit work or academia. I would suspect that their contribution numbers will never touch those of some other schools, even if everyone liked it there. The alumni body as a group simply doesn't have as much discretionary money for this sort of thing. I would guess.</p>
<p>Beyond these, you do get things like school spirit and whether people actually liked it there, which are of course highly significant as well.</p>
<p>Before I graduated the development office started a pledge campaign, as they do with each class. We were to pledge for the next year. The school was frank about its aims--it wants its alums to be "in the habit" of giving to their alma mater, because the Annual Fund was a critical part of the school's funding and because a high alumni giving rate was a positive thing to brag about when applying for grants, etc. They emphasized that it could be a small amount; hopefully it would grow as our prospects did.</p>
<p>I guess you could call this "marketing" or aggressive tactics, but I felt they were upfront about it, and it made it palatable. Otherwise I probably would have been snarky about being asked to make a pledge for the next year before I'd even left campus.</p>
<p>My S loves his college and so do we, I feel very grateful to them for his amazing experience and his finaid. We will definitely be contributers as I imagine he will when he is established at some point in his life. We can't do a lot right now but at some point we will be able to(another in college next year) I do think it is an indicator of how great the school.</p>
<p>Princeton was at or near the top of that list thirty years ago before any USNews or other rankings arose to make people care about it.</p>
<p>Their number reflects the level of marketing that they do...........and it also reflects whether the alumni give a hoot about writing a check of any kind. The latter is most definitely reflective of the feelings that the graduates have about the school that they attended.</p>
<p>If you have a choice, go where the people are happy that they are there (or will be happy in the future). Alumni giving might not be the best indicator that graduates are happy that they attended, but it seems like a reasonable good proxy for it.</p>
<p>Hmmm, interesting. With children attending private school from the get go, we've been brainwashed into contributing to annual giving every yr.;) The idea is to attain "100% participation" from faculty, staff, and families...no specific amount but whatever is affordable. On the flip side, we've also received some financial aid at one time or another from the schools. We just made our first small contribution to D1's college...hopefully to benefit all students.</p>
<p>Zagat,
I would bet that those (parents) who are encouraged to donate while their kids are still attending college are also more generous with their donations if they are getting some type of financial aid, be it need based or merit.</p>