<p>Alumni giving rate has been a metric some colleges valued even before US News started using it in their ranking. It's something they've used to demonstrate "satisfaction" when renewing a bond rating or applying for foundation grants.</p>
<p>I can assure you that alumni at Dartmouth and Princeton are much more satisfied than CalTech, at least in the way they see the institution in their lives. We just had our 5th year at Dartmouth and 700+ people (out of 1050) showed up. It was an amazing weekend and people were glowing about the place. It was like a wedding (outdoors in a beautiful area) plus people literally took over the school both nights. A great majority stayed in the dorms. We ran into the 15th and 25th year classes, and they similarly had incredible turnout. I cannot even begin to describe how great it was. </p>
<p>Its not hard to see why a school like Dartmouth (Princeton is very similar) would create more satisfied alumni base. People at places like NYU go to school in New York and take classes at NYU. At Dartmouth, Princeton, Amherst, etc your college is part of your identity for life.</p>
<p>Alumni giving is the closest stat I've seen that gives a strong glimpse into alumni satisfaction.</p>
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I can assure you that alumni at Dartmouth and Princeton are much more satisfied than CalTech, at least in the way they see the institution in their lives.
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<p>Caltech graduates tend to be poorer on average than the graduates of Princeton and Dartmouth. A lot of Caltechers are first generation students - hardly what you would consider a viable base for alumni donations. Re - The Price of Admissions.</p>
<p>Also, Caltech isn't what I would call the happiest place in the world. It's a great school for those who love science and mathematics, but the core curriculum and grade deflation there is just brutal. Plus, people generally aren't happy with being subjected to work and study all the time.</p>
<p>If this list shows anything it shows that LAC grads are more likely to give money to their schools than are NU grads</p>
<p>That is pretty clear from reading the two lists, now why is that?</p>
<p>tommybill,
I would not automatically reach that conclusion about Northwestern and the LACs. The numbers that I used to create this list are USNWR's. While I accept the numbers, it is not completely clear what they are using for alumni and what they are counting. Here is how they state it in their methodology:</p>
<p>"Alumni giving rate (5 percent). The average percentage of alumni who gave to their school during 2003-04 and 2004-05 is an indirect measure of student satisfaction."</p>
<p>I do not know if graduate school students are included in this calculation. If so, this would work to the benefit of the LACs and potentially to the detriment of the larger schools with large graduate programs. If anybody knows the answer to this, please help.</p>
<p>When I used “NU” I was referring to all of the National Universities not just Northwestern.</p>
<p>I appreciate your point. I don’t think any of the single source information on CC, be it lists or/and antidotes, is by itself, very useful. It is only when you add all of the lists, information, and antidotes together that you start to get the ability to make assumptions. Even then you have to remember assumptions are only assumptions, guidelines to work with, they are always open to reinterpation based on new information and/or new insights.</p>
<p>Thank you for being so good about getting information to us that we can use in this effort.</p>