re: “grateful alums”:
I had the experience of sharing an office with a Harvard class representative during a fund raising period.
He was calling all his classmates and doing anything he could to get them to cough up.
His primary, last ditch appeal was this:
Beating Yale (he also trotted out a few other schools, eg Princeton, MIT, but most consistently Yale) in the US News rankings, Since alumni giving counted in the rankings, and their high rating in US News continued to enhance the value and prestige of their degree.
His appeal had nothing whatsoever to do with whether they liked their school. It was all about their innate competitive drives, and continued self-interest.
I get calls occasionally from my alma maters, but nothing like the vehemence and intensity with which this guy went at it.
This experience makes me very suspect of using these stats.
eg Do Williams grads really love their school that much? Or rather do they mostly want to try their darnedest come out on top of Amherst, to pump up the prestige of their own degree, for their own individual aggrandizement?..
and what resources do the various schools use to get contributions? My officemate’s approach was nothing like what I get. Evidently the effort expended to drum up these contributions varies by school.