As for alumni willing to help out other alumni (rather than the number of total alumni), I’d say Harvard, Yale, and USC based on experience. But I would presume that any medium to small private college that is fairly high ranking, say top 100, the alumni would be willing to help each other out…
There is a book which I read recently on Kindle called “the alumni factor” which answers your question but also addresses ultimate outcomes. It is actually an interesting book, it’s based on thousands of surveys of graduates and has the proper statistical basis
Wellesley is also known for having a great alumnae network.
Howard Universitiy
I think the answer is…it depends. At some schools there might be great alumni connections for careers in finance, for example. But there might be very little for those in education.
I’m saying that, because my undergrad had a very strong communications and journalism program that had fabulous alumni connections…and folks employed all over the place who were very active with the school. But I was an education related major, and I never found alumni relations to be helpful in any way…unless I wanted to observe a classroom.
Although it is a very small school, Wabash College has a loyal network of alumni.
Michigan, absolutely. Throughout my career, I have benefited much, much more from Michigan connections than Harvard connections.
According to Princeton Review, this year they rank Clemson as #1 in Best Alumni. http://www.princetonreview.com/SchoolList.aspx?id=815
I’d say Notre Dame has a fairly broad and effective alumni as well…
I’ve long wondered what people mean by an “alumni network” or how we would measure it.
Sheer number of alumni? Annual donations per graduate? Percentage of alumni in “Who’s Who” (or some other compendium of movers and shakers)? I guess my alma mater must not have a very good one.
Come to think of it, my alma mater must have improved its alumni network. In recent years they started calling me for money about every 6 weeks. I just want to get my magazine once a month and a postcard during the Holidays thanking me - hint, hint - for the check I gave a year before.
In case you can not log in to see the Princeton Review info mentioned in post #27-The top 10 for “Best Alumni Network” are 1. Clemson 2. Dartmouth 3. Stanford 4. Texas A & M 5. Virginia Tech 6. Penn State 7. CMU 8. UVa 9. Cornell 10. Vanderbilt
^^Many, many happy Alumni who just love to meet other alumni are what you want. Even better when they socialize, too. My sib has a big group in SoCal that meet at the local watering hole at 9 AM on fall Saturday mornings to watch UofM on the Big 10 Network. Good connections, social and business, that have lasted through the years.
Women’s colleges.
It is interesting to compare two Princeton review list rankings regarding job one was relate with alumni network and one is ROI ranking. http://www.princetonreview.com/SchoolList.aspx?id=818
I don’t know about the rest of Carnegie Mellon, but the school of Computer Science has a very active chat board. My son made friends with alumni when he was a freshman and their network helped him get internships which ultimately led to his current job.
Duke, Dartmouth, Notre Dame.
It depends on industry, media, what program/major you went through, etc.
One school may have a strong network in media but not so much in tech while another would have a strong network in tech but not media, etc.
It also depends on what you are comfortable with. Some people can get more value from a big school network. Others are better at navigating a small school network, etc.
Surprised that no one has mentioned Princeton. At least on Wall Street, there is no more devoted loyal alumni base than Princeton. They give in large percentages to the school, significantly more than any other Ivy. This also translates into networking. In my business and legal circles, I certainly feel that Princeton’s alumni network is stronger than Harvard’s. There is a large segment of the Harvard population which is almost sheepish about going to Harvard, it might be something about Yankee reticence and from having the #1 target on their back for so many decades. They don’t go out of their way to promote their Harvard ties, while Princeton graduates are much more proud of their alma mater.
Yes, @momofthreeboys, this year alums would have had to start drinking at 9am to make it through the agony of a Michigan game ;).
Harvard/UPenn-Wharton
LOL Hobo LOL. They went, they wept.