<p>What universities have good connections after you graduate? For example, I know at USC, it is "Once a Trojan, Always a Trojan."</p>
<p>bump......</p>
<p>anyone?...</p>
<p>Eh, subjective really. I'd say the top Ivy Leagues, Berkeley, other top public universities. I mean, your question is quite broad without a definitive answer.</p>
<p>Notre Dame, Williams, Amherst, Texas A&M.</p>
<p>Boston College.</p>
<p>The top women's colleges do. Wellesley, in particular, is known for its amazing alumni network.</p>
<p>bigger schools=more alumni</p>
<p>bigger schools also may = looser network; fewer alumni who care about the school itself. If there's no community feeling at the bigger school while you're there, there won't be much when you're gone.</p>
<p>public universities (which have the largest alumni bases) are far from the most connected in the nation. sure, theyre going to provide the largest absolute number of connections, but youve got 10000 people to compete against for those jobs. good luck.</p>
<p>compare that to a princeton or a williams. alumni participation is three or four times higher than at even the best public universities. one tenth the people, one third the jobs.</p>
<p>top universities for connections: princeton, harvard, yale, duke, upenn, dartmouth, notre dame. </p>
<p>59 lacs would make a similar list.</p>
<p>Duke, ND, USC, Ivies. LAC's-Amherst, Williams, Colgate, Holy Cross, Bowdoin, and Wellesley.</p>
<p>Size has nothing to do with it. Whther a school has as few as 5,000 undergrads or as many as 25,000 undergrads, you are never going to knwo more than 50 students well enough to seriously call them friends. </p>
<p>School spirit is what it is all about. Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Michigan, Notre Dame, Penn, Princeton, UNC, USC, UVA, Williams and Yale (to name a few) are all known for having incredibly tight, loyal, proud and successful alumni networks.</p>
<p>Right; my post was simply in response to huskem55's assertion that bigger is better.</p>
<p>As a male, I'm going to abstain from the Bigger is Better debate.</p>
<p>Alexandre, I don't think it's necessarily people you actually KNOW who can help you in the networking. It's more like "Which colleges are such that someone who went there will probably help out a fellow alum even if he/she DOESN'T know you personally?"</p>
<p>Also, there are probably some GROUPS of colleges in which alums might help each other out even if they didn't go to the exact same college. For example, I have an undergrad degree from a Jesuit college, and I've found a certain cordial chemistry with graduates of other Jesuit colleges. Is there a similar bond between U of Cal (all campuses) grads or Ivy grads?</p>
<p>Penn State?</p>
<p>It's going to depend more on location of where you end up than probably anything else...</p>
<p>If you go to StateU and end up in the major city closest to it, (ie Nebraska -> Omaha, Kansas or K-state ->Kansas City; Colorado -> Denver; Washington ->Seattle) Alumni connections are going to common and most people are probably going to assume that you are from the place most people are from which probably won't help because the person being skipped over in favor of you is just as likely to be from the same school...whereas if you are from Nebraska and end up in say NYC there are obviously going to be a lot fewer connections - however they might end up being more beneficial because that connection is more unique. </p>
<p>I also think that there is some merit in to how likely someone is to notice that there is a connection there. So big time sports or class rings or whatever can aid in that process when you're looking for something where your resume isn't just passing across a desk.</p>
<p>There's no doubt however that joining a fraternity or sorority is one way to "hedge" your bets in finding a beneficial networking connection somewhere. You're effectively creating thousands of possible connections with people from all over the country.</p>
<p>i stand by my claim- a small school (as in ~2000 undergrads) will have a much smaller alumni base than a school of say 20,000. if you want a job in some company/applying for grad school to work with a certain professor, the odds are much much much greater that you will find someone from, say, cornell than someone from, say, swarthmore. thats what i mean by strong alumni network- i couldnt care less a bout the percentage of alumni who give $$ annually. i liked my school, but i'm at the stage of my life where giving significant $$ isnt feasible.</p>
<p>The top three are probably: Princeton, Notre Dame, Dartmouth</p>
<p>Other good aumni networks are: Colgate, TX A&M, USC, Yale, Harvard, Carleton, Williams, etc.</p>
<p>A bigger school may mean more alumni, but that doesn't mean anything unless they are devoted to the school- take a look at alumni giving rates to see the differences. Multiply that percentage by the number of living alumni and that will be give you the relevant size of the alumni network.</p>
<p>Shellzie, alumni donation rates are meaningless. 19 of the top 20 alumni donation rates belong to LACs. Are we to believe that 19 of the top 20 alumni networks are LACs? Fact is, the bigger the school, the lower the alumni donation rate because it is harder to reach the alums. And state schools do not have great donation rates because until recently, they were wealthier than private universities and did not rely on alumni donations to budget their operating costs.</p>
<p>I've heard Holy Cross has incredibly helpful and cohesive alumni.</p>