<p>My wife and I donated annually to our common undergraduate alma mater, but won't any more (after it rejected both kids); that amount will probably start going to the college both of them attend. I have given sporadically to my law school; my wife has only given to hers a couple of times, on the rare occasions it did something of which she approved, but she sometimes gives donations to a couple of student organizations there that she and her friends founded. </p>
<p>We also give some money to our kids' high school (which really needs and deserves it). I used to give money to my high school, but stopped years ago when my mother resigned her teaching position there after a series of significant philosophical differences with a new headmaster. He was gone five years later, and I admire the current headmaster a lot, but I've only made a couple of donations since then. My wife wouldn't give a cent to her high school.</p>
<p>I have donated to MIT every year since I graduated, whatever I thought was reasonable that year. I was told recently that my lifetime total of about $5000 put me in the top 10% of women graduates! </p>
<p>I also donate to my (private Quaker) elementary school, very happily, since they have always been very clear what they use the money for, and I support their use of it. </p>
<p>I stopped donating to my high school when they decided NOT to upgrade sciences... and did upgrade athletics. Wrong priorities, if you ask me.</p>
<p>Donate every year. Usually not to my major area--they get enough money--but to the arts and similar underfunded areas. Usually get a personal note from the dept chair thanking me. They seem shocked . Very nice.</p>
<p>I have been donating to undergrad institution since graduation, and H has done the same for his undergrad institution. We met in law school, and neither of us has donated a penny there because as H so beautifully put it, "it's time that the career services office learns that 90% of the class is not in the top 10% of the class." We had been donating to S#1's undergrad institution until he graduated last year. We have now informed them that this has become his responsibility.</p>
<p>I donate to my undergraduate school, and designate that the money goes to the library (hope it actually does). It's enough to buy a few extra books. I work at a college whose pay scale is below that of comparative schools. I figure the difference is my contribution.</p>
<p>I have given regularly (not lots) to my undergrad (which is also grad) school, but I'm very annoyed they just rejected my daughter, and then have the nerve to keep sending me special requests. I am very sure we will be hit up big time by my daughter's enrolled school, particularly since she got a big merit scholarship. We'll evaluate how much, but I don't foresee continuing it once she graduates.</p>
<p>I donate to my undergrad school (very small State U.), nothing to my law school. The law school was treated as a cash cow for the U. of which it is a part......so whatever profit it made from me then is what it is getting from me now. On the other hand I recently made a Mother's Day donation to Hunter College in honor of my mother who is one of it's oldest living grads. She was thrilled. (I doubt if she ever made a contribution herself.) I have never donated nor have I been solicited by my kids' alma maters.</p>
<p>I donate regularly to my almater and to D1's day school. </p>
<p>I'm surprised by the number of posters who discontinued donating b/c a child was not admitted. D2 was not admitted to D1's tip-top day school; it provided D1 w/ a great education and I can now see that it was not the right school for D2 (though I was heartbroken at the time). D2 will probably apply to my almater, but it will be a an umber-reach school for her; I will continue my modest annual donation regardless of D2's admssions outcome.</p>
<p>We also give to MIT, where husband was an undergrad. He put himself through school and is happy to be able to help another kid who might be trying to do the same. Coincidentally, we also continue to support our children's (private Quaker) elementary. And, we contribute to one summer program which was something of a turning point in one of our kids' lives.</p>
<p>I stopped giving to my college alma mater years ago when I decided that they were plenty rich (and they are) without my tuppence. Once when I was feeling sarcastic, I taped a nickel and two pennies to the pledge form and mailed it back in. A few weeks later, I got a nice letter for my tax files thanking me for the $.07 donation! I don't think they broke even on that one. </p>
<p>I also stopped giving to my private high school alma mater when I went to reunion a few years ago, got a load of the spanking new multi-million-dollar science building, and compared it to the somewhat threadbare facilities at the local public science magnet my daughters attended. My bucks now go to the local public school PTA foundation.</p>
<p>H and I donate to the state university that we both graduated from. At the time we attended tuition was a tiny fraction of the cost of educating students so we felt like we owed something back. We generally give to a fund that supports grad students for summer research/field work. Again, where we felt we got the most help from the university when we were there.<br>
We still get solicited for donations from the school one of ours left years ago. She wasn't happy there, graduated from another school - and they think we'll send <em>more</em> money?</p>
<p>I donated for 25 years to my alma mater Pomona College. Then I got a letter with a dollar bill enclosed, asking that the alumni "send back the dollar", so as to push the alumni % donor rate upwards enough to improve their USNWR rank. What a sham! I kept the dollar.</p>
<p>I now donate every year to UCLA. I designate the money for low income student scholarships.</p>
<p>I donate to my grad school (Chapel Hill) generously, but only minimally to my UG (Vanderbilt). I donate this way primarily because I had a much better social and academic experience at UNC coupled with the fact that Vanderbilt has plenty of money and doesn't need the little I give to keep the country club bubble fully inflated.</p>
<p>I have given every year to Yale since graduation even though my contribution is meaningless given the school's endownment. I want to thank my alma mater for the incredible academic and social experience it provided. My child is not yet of college application age and I can't imagine tying continued giving to an acceptance letter, but I haven't lived it yet and have always wondered if that would change the equation.</p>
<p>My mother does not give to her college because she feels like they care about athletics more than academics. I was at her house when the alumni fund called once and she read them the riot act about spending for new sports facilities instead of bumping professor salaries, bolstering financial aid, and expanding research facilities. She gives to my college instead.</p>
<p>Both my DH and I graduated from the same Univ (different departments). We donate every year. My grad degree most definitely gave me a boost in my Pharma Research career. It's a nice way of saying thank you for the invaluable careers we have gained.</p>
<p>Yes, I donate to the nursing school. I'm a nurse and believe that the shortage will become an urgent problem. I want to help the future of nursing any way I can.</p>
<p>My husband and I both make alumni donations every year to the schools where we got our bachelors degrees. We have encouraged DS to do the same for his alma mater. We do designate our donations to the departments of our majors. It's not a huge amount, but we do it annually. These schools gave us the opportunity to study in the career fields in which we work.</p>
<p>We donate to our alma mater and grad school (we went to the same ones) and to the summer program S attended for several years. We designate the donations for scholarships (we both attended college and grad school on scholarships).</p>