<p>If I actually like the school I'll graduate from, I imagine that I'd try to donate as an adult.</p>
<p>This is a personal decision you have to make. I have never donated. However, only 10% of alumni from my university make donations. According to US News, the college with the highest percentage of alumni who make donations is Princeton at 63%. Not sure what their secret is!</p>
<p>Princeton is serious about Reunions. I have never attended (as I did not attend Princeton) but have heard from friends married to Princeton alum about how seriously they all take it, and how much fun the reunion is for the entire family. This may have something to do with their fundraising success.</p>
<p>It is important and if possible do it.</p>
<p>I donate to the private high school I went to. I do not donate to the large state U where I went to collage.</p>
<p>I depended on financial aid to get through college. In my senior year I was a recipient of a scholarship. The only stipulation of the scholarship was that it go to a needy senior. I appreciated the benefactor’s gift, but there was no one to write a thank you note. It is something that I have not forgotten though. So, yes, I donate to my alma mater.</p>
<p>My wife and I donated regularly and significantly (at least for us) to our graduate school for many years. Once I stopped working things began to look different to us. One, we have a lot less money to allocate to charitable causes, and two, this very well endowed university looks less and less like a charitable cause to us. They continue to get highly publicized multi-million dollar gifts from alum who want their names on buildings or endowed chairs and their graduates continue to embark on very lucrative careers. So, what do they need my piddling few hundred or thousand bucks for? Wife continues to donate to her undergraduate school.</p>
<p>I don’t. They really don’t need the money, and they spend much of it subsidizing millionaires’ kids. There are several other colleges I donate to, including one from which my older d. graudated.</p>
<p>Yes, for my undergrad school. No for the grad school.</p>
<p>I donate to my small LAC. In the 22 years since I graduate, I’ve only missed 2 years. I don’t give big bucks, but always something. I think the give rate for my school is just below 35%.</p>
<p>I give as I am able to other charities but have never donated to any of the schools I or my kids have attended, other than tuition & expenses. I have donated cash and services to other charities I believe in and when attending reunions or benefits will bid on silent auction items (even if I don’t particularly want them), to help them raise money. I have attended in-state and out of state public Us. </p>
<p>I do not personally feel our in-state U is handling its finances very well and some salary bloat in its administration so do not feel inclined to donate to them. I am not inclined to donate to our kids’ alma mater because I feel we paid more than enough for both kids in the years they attended, plus they have MANY very wealthy donors who are donating buildings, etc. to their campus.</p>
<p>What about to the college your kids attend(ed)? We get calls every year from our kids’ private universities requesting donations. I tell them every year that I give to my alma maters, and that my kids some day can choose whether to give to theirs, but that I am not going to donate beyond the tuition we already pay.</p>
<p>A development officer at one of my alma maters told me that many parents do donate. Who knew?</p>
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<p>Ditto for me. In my more colorful moods I’m liable to say things like, “I would rather light my money on fire and let the ashes blow away than ever give a single cent to my Ph.D. alma mater,” but most of the time I try to be more reasonable. ;)</p>
<p>I make both general and targeted donations to my beloved undergraduate alma mater.</p>
<p>I do not give to my undergrad school. They have my H - and the way they have treated him the last few years there is no way they will see a penny from me.</p>
<p>We do give to the university my kids attended. They gave them both very generous scholarships and we are very grateful for the education and experiences they had there.</p>
<p>We also give to the university where H received his master’s degrees. He has always stated the best part of his education came from that school. We do not give to his doctoral school. When we needed help, they were not willing to work with us. So now, no help from us.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t have been able to go to college without financial aid, so I pay it forward by donating to my LAC every year. No donations to my graduate schools.</p>
<p>If S wants to donate to his alma mater after he graduates, that’s up to him. They’re not getting a dime out of me beyond the tuition.</p>
<p>“What about to the college your kids attend(ed)”</p>
<p>We will give once we are done paying tuition when we will be better able to afford to. They have given him a very generous scholarship which is greatly appreciated and so we would like to give back so another kid will have the same opportunity.</p>
<p>Yes, both undergrad and graduate school. I don’t give them money to do with as they please, though. (I don’t care whether they have an indoor and an outdoor climbing wall, etc. and don’t want to fund it, either.) A friend’s father was a professor, and I donate to the memorial scholarship started to honor him. </p>
<p>I received generous scholarships/graduate fellowships which had no competitive component, and give money to help other students to attend these schools. My undergrad school has over 50% of alumni giving annually. </p>
<p>We also give to scholarship funds at the college our daughter attends, and will probably continue once she graduates.</p>
<p>I give to my undergrad university because I am emotionally connected to it and because I feel they make great use of donations. </p>
<p>I stopped giving to my grad school because I saw how they were wasting tens of millions of dollars on one project. That personalized tour on homecomings weekend had the exact opposite effect of what was intended. </p>
<p>Yes, if you can swing it, a student or parent after graduation should try to pay back to a college some of the difference between what they paid in tuition and what it cost the college to educate them. Most colleges allow people to designate their gifts for need-based financial aid programs.</p>
<p>I found it offensive when my kids’ colleges kept calling - my feeling is that they were already getting $50,000 a year from me.</p>
<p>I donate to my undergrad school and have done so almost every year since
I graduated. I make a restricted donation to my (small) department, and a small donation to the library.</p>