Part V: Ignore the Rankings and Focus on the Data (Alumni Giving)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>While I believe that Alumni Giving should not be part of the rankings methodology of USNWR, it can provide a good lens into the level of support that some schools have among their graduates. </p>

<p>Here is the data for the group of National Universities that are ranked in the USNWR Top 50:</p>

<p>% of Alumni contributing to the school , USNWR Rank , College</p>

<p>60% , 1 , Princeton</p>

<p>52% , 2 , Duke
52% , 3 , Dartmouth</p>

<p>49% , 4 , Notre Dame
44% , 5 , Yale
41% , 6 , Harvard</p>

<p>39% , 8 , U Penn
39% , 7 , Brown
38% , 9 , Stanford
37% , 10 , MIT
37% , 11 , Wash U
37% , 12 , Emory
36% , 13 , Rice
36% , 13 , Lehigh
35% , 15 , Columbia
35% , 15 , USC
34% , 17 , Cornell
34% , 17 , Johns Hopkins
34% , 19 , Brandeis
33% , 22 , U Chicago
33% , 21 , Wake Forest
31% , 23 , Georgetown
31% , 24 , Georgia Tech</p>

<p>29% , 28 , Caltech
29% , 27 , Northwestern
27% , 31 , Vanderbilt
26% , 34 , Tulane
25% , 36 , Carnegie Mellon
25% , 36 , U Virginia
25% , 36 , W&M
24% , 41 , Tufts
24% , 41 , Boston Coll
23% , 46 , U North Carolina
21% , 53 , Penn State
20% , 62 , Syracuse</p>

<p>19% , 66 , U Rochester
19% , 66 , Rensselaer
17% , 83 , U Michigan
17% , 83 , U Washington
17% , 89 , UC Santa Barbara
17% , 83 , U Florida
16% , 93 , Case Western
15% , 109 , U Texas
14% , 117 , UC Berkeley
14% , 117 , UCLA
14% , 117 , U Wisconsin
14% , 117 , U Illinois
12% , 135 , UC Davis
11% , 149 , UC Irvine
10% , 167 , NYU
9% , 182 , UCSD</p>

2

<p>Keep in mind, however, that alumni giving also reflects not only how recent graduates feel about their school but also:</p>

<p>1) how people currently feel about a school they attended 10, 20, 30, 40, in some cases 50 or 60 years ago, information that is of limited relevance to prospective applicants;</p>

<p>2) the size, aggressiveness, and effectiveness of the school's "development" office; and</p>

<p>3) current and historic expectations as to how the school is funded, whether primarily through private philanthropy or primarily through taxpayer support. </p>

<p>Thus it's little surprise that the top 35 on this list are all private schools, while the publics, historically supported primarily by taxpayer dollars and only recently beginning to make the transition to private sources (and in the process meeting some resistance among alumni to the idea that it is their duty to support their alma mater financially when that was never historically the case), rank much further down the list. Notice, too, that among the publics, those that in recent years have gone the furthest down the road toward quasi-privatization (UVA, UNC, U Michigan) rank higher than those that have not (U Texas, the UCs, U Wisconsin). Give them another 30 or 40 years at it and I'll bet they're right up there with the top privates which have been doing this for a very, very long time.</p>

3

<p>The list above is a bit misleading, because it doesn't include the Liberal Arts Colleges, which are (as a class) the strongest performers in terms of alumni giving rates. </p>

<p>The university rankings above list a grand total of 6 national universities with giving rates above 40%. Based on a quick scan of the alumni giving rates shown in the 2008 US News rankings, I counted 43 LACs with such rates, including two LACs above 60%, and 10 LACs above 50%. </p>

<p>Furthermore, two of the highest-ranked universities -- Princeton and Dartmouth -- are noted for their unusually small undergraduate enrollments, and LAC-like emphasis on undergraduate education.</p>

<p>It may sound crazy, but some people suspect that strong institutional support for students leads, in turn, to strong alumni support for institutions.</p>

4

<p>also, this doesn't take account of the actual amount...you count towards the percentage whether you have paid 100 dollars or 100,000,000 dollars; the list of gift size vs. percentage differs.</p>

5

<p>Alumni giving. So very important for private schools, not as important for public schools. What is the whole point of even rating this in USNWR? Oh I know why, to bias the ratings towards the private schools.</p>

6

<p>^^^ Very good point, Corbett. According to US News, 8 of the 9 top-raqnked LACs had alumni giving rates > 50%. So the real top 10 are:
1. Carleton 64%
2. Amherst 61%
3. Princeton 60%
4. Williams 58%
5. Middlebury 57%
6. Bowdoin 55%
7. Davidson 54%
8. Duke 52%
8. Dartmouth 52%
10. Swarthmore 51%
10 Wesleyan 51%</p>

<p>What perhaps more telling here is which LACs are comparatively low in alumni giving. This includes many of the historically women's colleges (Vassar 37%, Smith 36%, Barnard 35%), with Wellesley a strong exception at 50% (good for #11 overall), and the service academies (Naval Academy 22%, West Point 34%).</p>

<p>Among private research universities, Caltech (29%), Northwestern (29%), Vanderbilt (27%), Carnegie-Mellon (25%), Tufts (24%), NYU (10%), U Rochester (19%), and Case Western (14%) rank significantly below their peers.</p>

7

<p>I think you're leaving out Centre College in the LAC list - they are in the top five, if I recall correctly.</p>

8

<p>
[quote]
the service academies Naval Academy 22%, West Point 34%

[/quote]
</p>

<p>It's interesting to note the relationships here: those two are public, and their giving rates drop precipitously in comparison to those ranked right next to them (49%, 45%, 43%, 38%). Might it be that those who attend private institutions feel more of an obligation to donate to their alma mater than those who attended public institutions, when they know that their school is supported by taxpayers?</p>

<p>
[quote]
Among private research universities, Caltech (29%), Northwestern (29%), Vanderbilt (27%), Carnegie-Mellon (25%), Tufts (24%), NYU (10%), U Rochester (19%), and Case Western (14%) rank significantly below their peers.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Caltech especially makes me doubt the effectiveness of these statistics at measuring the "institutional support," as Corbett says. Caltech is constantly lauded for being very LAC-like while having the offerings of a great technology institute, easily on par with MIT, and consistently ranked in the top 10, often top 5 (once before, even #1!). Yet it has a 29% giving rate? Seems a bit of a non sequitur.</p>

9

<p>More relevant than the alumni giving rate is the total amount raised in a given year. Thus for NYU, this rate is indeed low, 10%. Nevertheless, on the list of the top fund-raising universities for 2006-07, NYU is No. 17, with $287,587,458 raised. See the article in the Chronicle of Higher Education:</p>

<p>The</a> Chronicle of Higher Education</p>

10

<p>demographics may have something to do with it, too. Think of who would be drawn to more pre-professional degrees? We see these discussions all over the CC board in one form or another. People who feel the need for a quick return on their educational investment are going to be are LOT less interested in making a donation to dear old Alma Mater -- particularly, when they're still paying off college loans. LAC grads tend to come from wealthier families with a history of private charitable giving and even those who come from more humble backgrounds tend to internalize a lot of the rhetoric of "doing well by doing good". I mean, when Obama chose to make his only commencement address of the year, he didn't go to Harvard, he went to Wesleyan.</p>

11

<p>When you see such disparity among top 50 schools, 9-60%, it pretty much means there is little correlation between alumni giving and a school's rank. In addition, many schools outside the top 50 would be found to infiltrate the top 50 based upon this measure. NC State, a school not in the top 50, has a 30% giving rate, better than half the schools in the top 50 and second only to GaTech among the public U's on the list. Likewise, Va Tech does comparatively well with 24%.</p>

12

<p>I think among LACs that I have seen Colgate, Hamilton, Haverford, Holy Cross all above 50% as well.</p>

13

<p>VA Tech is a heck of a school, IMHO.</p>

14

<p>
[quote]
demographics may have something to do with it, too. Think of who would be drawn to more pre-professional degrees? We see these discussions all over the CC board in one form or another. People who feel the need for a quick return on their educational investment are going to be are LOT less interested in making a donation to dear old Alma Mater -- particularly, when they're still paying off college loans. LAC grads tend to come from wealthier families with a history of private charitable giving and even those who come from more humble backgrounds tend to internalize a lot of the rhetoric of "doing well by doing good". I mean, when Obama chose to make his only commencement address of the year, he didn't go to Harvard, he went to Wesleyan.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Obama didn't choose to go anywhere. He was a replacement speaker. A pretty ok one at that. </p>

<p>Why is Princeton so far ahead of the rest of the bunch?</p>

15

<p>more Old Money. P is probably the least pre-professional of the Big Three</p>

16

<p>Doesn't explain that significant a gap. Even if it is smaller and more LAC like.</p>

17

<p>No, that would be Yale for sure. Princeton just has incredibly loyal alumni. There seems to be a strong correlation betweel alumni giving percentage and the undergraduate focus of the school. Princeton, Duke, Dartmouth and Notre Dame are known to be schools with great undergrad focus.</p>

18

<p>No, Princeton is smaller with fewer grad students. Much more LAC like than Yale. Still doesn't explain gap.</p>

19

<p>
[quote]
No, that would be Yale for sure. Princeton just has incredibly loyal alumni.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Nobody can really say, definitively, which is the cause...</p>

<p>
[quote]
Princeton, Duke, Dartmouth and Notre Dame are known to be schools with great undergrad focus.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>So is Yale.</p>

20

<p>
[quote]
So is Yale.

[/quote]

I have some familiarity with both LACs and research universities. It's my experience that LAC undergraduates have a strong sense of "ownership" and entitlement about their schools that is typically missing (or at least not as well developed) among undergraduates at large universities. I think this is what drives the higher alumni giving rates. </p>

<p>At both Princeton and Dartmouth, the undergraduate enrollments are relatively small, and the undergrads greatly outnumber the graduate and professional students, by about 2.5 to 1. I get the same general feeling of undergraduate "ownership" at Princeton and Dartmouth. I just don't feel it as strongly at schools like Harvard or Yale, where the undergrads don't predominate to the same extent. </p>

<p>I readily admit that this is a completely intangible and subjective opinion.</p>