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<p>Alumni giving is also a strong indicator of the wealth of the student body. It’s a whole lot easier to donate money from daddy’s trust fund. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Have always been curious about this giving rate over a long period. As top schools become increasingly ‘economically diverse’, and as larger percentages of graduates become interested in the non-profit sector, has the rate of giving changed much? Likely the gross amount of giving will be measurably affected, but the rate seems to be steady. Just curious though.</p>
<p>alumni giving rate does NOT measure that ubiquitous measurement of JOB OPPORTUNITIES both for recent grads and even more mature alumni. To me, the alumni network for jobs is really important for deciding on a college. And sometimes the LAC or smaller national privates have a very zealous alumni network that is very helpful in the job search.</p>
<p>IN that light, is it better to be contacting and interviewing for jobs being a graduate of a smaller pool of zealous graduates than a HUGE pool of some state flagship? Maybe. To put another way, I would rather be someone special or unique than someone from “oh…another graduate from XYZ school!” </p>
<p>Fordham has a 23% giving rate. It nots breaking records in alumni giving…though they have a huge capital campaign going on now that is raising record levels…but its alumni network is very strong and influential in finding jobs. Fordham grads stick together. That is just one example. </p>
<p>You want to pick a school that is small enough that you are not just another number and “Oh another graduate from XYZ school…yawn!” but not too small and obscure that people say, “who the heck is THAT? can’t help you!” </p>
<p>Like Goldilocks and the Three Bears…not too hot, not too cold…just right.</p>
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<p>It was actually 62%, making it the highest alumni giving rate in the nation.</p>
<p>[Give</a> to Middlebury](<a href=“http://www.middlebury.edu/supporting]Give”>http://www.middlebury.edu/supporting)</p>
<p>Holy Cross raised a record amount for its annual alumni fund this year in a down economy. Sports provides a great venue for alums at ND, Duke, and Stanford. Duke hoops and Notre Dame football unite their alumni all over the country. Duke-UNC basketball and ND-USC football are very unique.</p>
<p>One might look into the number of area alumni groups the school has, and the number of activities each group sponsors each year.</p>
<p>My own alma mater has had active alumni groups everyplace I’'ve lived, and they’ve offered a variety of ongoing programs, social events, lectures by visitng faculty,etc. that i have frequently availed myself of.</p>
<p>By contrast, D1s college seems to have active groups in only about 3 cities, so far as I can tell. Their one annual event in NYC was for everyone to meet in Central Park, bring your own food. They might have had something else in Brooklyn, IIRC, but whatever it was, it paled by comparison.</p>
<p>And the school that granted my graduate degree, a very large school, seems to offer almost nothing for alums whatsoever. I have never been anywhere where this school had an active alumni group, even in the city where it is located.</p>
<p>You will hopefully be an alum a lot longer than you will be a student.</p>
<p>I have been somewhat skeptical of the value of alumni giving rates as a pure indicator for aggregate love of one’s college experience, ever since I shared an office with a Harvard grad who was an officer for his class, and witnessed him working the phones pumping his classmates for donations. He made it into a competitve thing, have to beat Yale, whatever. I doubt all schools are pumping the alumni base to the same extent, with the same spiel. Plus, I suspect some schools simply drop alums who don’t contribute from who they consider “alumni”. That’s likely why I never get mailings anymore from my grad school’s university, once I didn’t give to them for a few years. In other words this stat can be manipulated, IMO, and consequently may not be a totally pure and completely reliable indicator of fondness for one’s college experience.</p>
<p>There are other issues too, eg a school with poorer alums ( eg professors and musicians) may be expected to get a smaller % alumni donations than a school with more corporate lawyers and bankers as alums, even if they loved their college experience just as much, and got what they bargained for out of it to the same extent. People who have more are more likely to give more.</p>
<p>And prestige-oriented people may give to pump up their school’s reputation, US News ranking, and therefore their own reflected prestige. Even if they hated it there. For some schools I think this is actually what the giving rates primarlily reflect.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, that just ain’t happen’…the top 50-60% of students at highly selective schools are still full pay and have been for awhile.</p>
<p>D at a small LAC …probably in the top 25% of her class (’10) ….she wants to move back to Wash DC where she was born and lived first 10 years…….since going back to school this fall she has had 4 phone calls from alumni in Washington inviting her to “stop by” when she is in DC looking for work……</p>