Schools with the most Peace Corps volunteers

College Search & Selection
1

If you are looking for that…

https://www.peacecorps.gov/news/library/peace-corps-announces-2016-top-volunteer-producing-schools/

If you are really looking for the Peace Corps crowd, look at the last few years and the top 25

http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/stats/schools2015.pdf
http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/stats/schools2014.pdf
http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/stats/schools2013.pdf
http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/stats/schools2012.pdf
http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/stats/schools2011.pdf

2

I churned through all the reports from 2003-2015 (13 years) and made a list of the schools that make the top 25 in the <5000 category for at least 5 years. Shown is the average number of awardees per year and the number of years the school appears on the list. If year was missing, I used the min for that year minus 1, so school with many missing years will tend to have a higher average than they should. Nonetheless making it onto the list for 5 years means it’s a pretty ‘Peace Corps’ heavy school anyhow. Univ of Chicago and Tufts left off since they moved from the <5000 to >5000 category at some point in the 13 years. Note, the nature of they set up the categories means that it’d be hard for a school under 1500 to make the list. They’d have to have as many volunteers as a school 4 times as big.

Top Peace Corps producers for schools with 1500 to 5000 undergraduates.
Only schools that appeared on the top 25 list at least 5 times from 2003-2015
Although sorted, the mere fact that a school made this list means that it produces an unusually high # of Peace Corp volunteers.

Average=average # over 13 years, Ave.per.1000=average per 1000 undergrads, Num.Yrs=num years the school made the top 25 list.

Size_AverageAve.per.1000Num.YrsSchool
4837____22.84.713Gonzaga Univ WA
255322.58.813Univ of Puget Sound WA
438320.94.812Univ of Mary Washington VA
430720.44.711Dartmouth College NH
304619.76.511St Olaf College MN
201418.89.310Carleton College MN
290018.46.313Oberlin College OH
252618.27.211Middlebury College VT
170517.510.311Grinnell College IA
201217.38.611Colorado College CO
200017.28.612Willamette Univ OR
313817.15.4____9Wesleyan Univ CT
207316.88.110Macalester College MN
217916.87.710Lewis and Clark College OR
247415.96.4____5Wellesley College MA
481215.83.3____8Wake Forest Univ NC
419315.63.7____9Evergreen State College WA
212615.67.3____9Mount Holyoke College MA
247815.66.3____8Smith College MA
190115.68.2____8St Mary’s College MD
463115.23.3____6Seattle Univ WA
356515.24.3____7Bucknell Univ PA
292715.25.2____5Colgate Univ CA
147014.710.05Whitman College WA
466114.53.15Case Western Reserve OH
225014.56.46Denison Univ OH
182514.27.85Colby College ME
387914.13.6_____5Rice Univ TX

Note, smaller schools tend to have a higher Ave.per.1000. Four schools stand out as having higher Ave.per.1000 than you would expect given their size even within this group of high Peace Corp volunteer producers: Gonzaga Univ, Univ of Puget Sound, Carleton College, and Grinnell College.

The state distribution (# schools per state) is

WA 5
OH 3
MN 3
MA 3 * all women’s colleges
OR 2
CA, CO, CT, IA, MD, ME, NC,NH, PA, TX, VA, VT each 1

3

Here’s the list with all the schools that appeared at least once in the top 25 for school under 5000. I replaced missing values (years when schools didn’t appear on the list) with the min in the table - 1 (so the max the school could have had that year). That means the Average for schools which appear a few times is the MAX that that school could have.

Size_AverageAve.per.1000Num.YrsSchool
483722.84.713Gonzaga Univ WA
255322.58.813Univ of Puget Sound WA
438320.94.812Univ of Mary Washington VA
430720.44.711Dartmouth College NH
304619.76.511St Olaf College MN
201418.89.310Carleton College MN
290018.46.313Oberlin College OH
252618.27.211Middlebury College VT
170517.510.311Grinnell College IA
201217.38.611Colorado College CO
200017.28.612Willamette Univ OR
313817.15.4____9Wesleyan Univ CT
207316.88.110Macalester College MN
217916.87.710Lewis and Clark College OR
247415.96.4____5Wellesley College MA
481215.83.3____8Wake Forest Univ NC
419315.63.7____9Evergreen State College WA
212615.67.3____9Mount Holyoke College MA
247815.66.3____8Smith College MA
190115.68.2____8St Mary’s College MD
463115.23.3____6Seattle Univ WA
356515.24.3____7Bucknell Univ PA
292715.25.2____5Colgate Univ CA
365414.84.03Univ of Portland OR
1470_14.710.05Whitman College WA
466114.53.15Case Western Reserve OH
233714.56.22Luther College IA
225014.56.46Denison Univ OH
242014.56.03Dickinson College PA
245014.45.94Gustavus Adolphus College MN
1374__14.410.54Reed College OR
219114.36.52Williams College MA
193114.27.43Allegheny College PA
310014.24.62Pacific Lutheran Univ WA
167614.28.43Kenyon College OH
182514.27.85Colby College ME
387914.13.65Rice Univ TX
230114.16.14Clark Univ MA
191514.17.43Conn College CT
358814.03.93Brandeis Univ MA
1403__14.010.01Kalamazoo College IA
142014.09.92Knox College IL
364413.93.82Hope College MI
403413.83.41Butler Univ IN
353313.83.92Pepperdine Univ CA
245113.85.61Gettysburg College PA
225013.86.21SUNY College of Env NY
179913.87.73Bowdoin College ME
236013.85.82Barnard College NY
346713.73.91Seattle Pacific Univ WA
364013.73.82College of St Benedict MN
386413.73.51Fort Lewis College CO
234413.75.81Hobart and William Smith College NY
239813.75.71St Lawrence Univ NY
1307__13.710.52Bryn Mawr College PA
185013.77.41Hamilton College NY
330013.64.11Valparaiso Univ IN
399013.63.41Calvin College MI
200013.66.81Wittenberg Univ OH
245013.65.61Vassar College NY
210013.66.51Hamline Univ MN
227813.66.01Trinity Univ TX
130013.610.5___1Beloit College WI
166313.68.2____1Pomona College CA
160013.68.5____1Wheaton College MA
179113.67.6____1Bates College ME
189913.67.2____1St Michaels College VT

Here’s the state distribution for all schools that appear on the list
MA 8
NY 7
WA 7
CA 6
MN 6
OH 5
PA 5
OR 4
CO 3
ME 3
CT 2
IA 2
IL 2
IN 2
MI 2
NC 2
VT 2
TX 2
IA 1
MD 1
VA 1
NH 1
WI 1

4

I also tabulated the info for the Ivy League + Stanford + Univ of Chicago

Num Yrs is number of years the schools appears on the top 25 list

SizeAverageAve.per.1000Num.YrsSchool
1431548.23.413Cornell Univ
586026.24.511Univ of Chicago
1040623.62.39Univ of Penn
632022.23.510Brown Univ
430720.44.711Dartmouth College
545319.23.5__7Yale Univ
698017.42.53Stanford Univ
841014.8__1.82Columbia Univ
670014.62.22Harvard
5391nana____0Princeton

There is a huge diversity of size from ca 5000 to 15000. But some patterns show. Stanford, Columbia, Harvard and Princeton don’t produce many Peace Corps volunteers compared to similar sized Univ of Chicago, Brown, Dartmouth and Yale. Cornell appears every year in the top 25, but it’s also near the top of the size range. Still its per.1000 average is high and is often the #2-4 school on the top 25 list of schools 5000-15000.

5

Here’s the top Peace Corp producing schools in the 5000-15000 category. That’s a huge size range so I broke it into 5000-7000, 7001-10000, 10001-15000.

5000-7000 undergraduates. Just making it onto the top 25 is difficult for a school this size since your are “competing” against schools twice as big. So even making it on the top 25 once probably means the school produces an unusually high number of Peace Corps volunteers. That said, within this size class there are some stand out uber-producers. The College of William and Mary is the big stand out followed by Univ of Chicago, Tufts, Yale and Brown. It’s interesting that the top producers in this size range includes so many “top 20” schools near the top. That wasn’t the case for the smaller sizes (1500-5000). There were a lot more schools that people haven’t heard of in that table.

SizeAverageAve.per.1000Num.YrsSchool
_629938.56.113***College of William and Mary VA
586027.24.611**Univ of Chicago
632023.63.710**Brown Univ
521621.54.19**Tufts Univ
545321.4__3.97**Yale Univ
698020.12.9____3Stanford Univ
575818.43.24Univ of Denver
648518.1__2.84Duke Univ
585018.13.1____3Truman State Univ
543517.83.33Santa Clara Univ
670017.6__2.62Harvard
602317.42.9____6Johns Hopkins Univ
574117.23.03Univ of San Diego
560017.2__3.12SUNY Geneseo
651316.92.6____2Howard Univ
590316.82.92Elon Univ
630416.82.71Univ of Rochester

7001-10000 undergraduates. In this size class, American University in Wash, DC is the stand out, followed by Georgetown Univ, also in DC. After that there are is a long list of schools marked by ** that make it into the top-25 table most years: Boston College, Northwestern Univ, Emory Univ, Univ of Notre Dame and Humboldt State Univ. After that Tulane Univ, WA Univ in St Louise and Marquette Univ have appeared most of the last 13 years. After that there there are a bunch of schools that appeared 1-3 times.

SizeAverageAve.per.1000Num.YrsSchool
708344.06.213***American Univ DC
763637.24.99**Georgetown Univ DC
910033.93.713**Boston College
831427.53.312**Northwestern Univ
844825.23.013**Univ of Notre Dame
765623.23.0___9**Emory Univ
824222.52.710**Humboldt State Univ
833921.32.68*Tulane Univ
838721.02.5_8*Marquette Univ
754319.02.56*WA Univ St Louis
933018.8__2.03Univ of Idaho
971018.21.9____3Univ of Northern CO
841017.52.12Columbia Univ
915417.5__1.94Loyola Univ Chicago
823316.92.1____2Northern Michigan Univ
855416.82.01Univ of Dayton
977716.81.71Univ of Wisconsin La Crosse

10001-15000 undergraduates. As expected this size class has the most schools that appear every year. There are 5 schools of this size that appear every year, 3 of the next class down, and 1 in the smallest class I used. George Washington Univ stands out as having a very high per 1000 average along with appearing every year. Western WA Univ, Cornell Univ, and Univ of Montana also appear every year but have a somewhat lower per 1000 average. Then there is a group that appears most of the 13 years and has a lower per 1000 average: Univ of Penn, Univ of Vermont, College of Charleston, Univ of New Hampshire and Montana State. After that there is a group that appeared 1-2 times.

SizeAverageAve.per.1000Num.YrsSchool
1090054.55.013***George Washington Univ
1440753.13.713**Western WA Univ
1431548.23.413**Cornell Univ
1018931.73.113**Univ of Montana
1040625.32.49*Univ of Penn
1008124.5__2.49*Univ of Vermont
1284024.41.913*Univ of NH
1048822.32.1___7*College of Charleston
1337121.71.68*Montana State Univ
1356917.9__1.32Binghamton Univ
1383117.41.3___1Univ of Rhode Island
1321817.31.32Univ of NC Wilmington
1076817.0__1.62Univ of Miami
1480717.01.1___2Bowling Green State Univ
1395216.81.21Univ of Hawaii Manoa
1049916.8__1.61Univ of Wisconsin Eau Claire
1415016.81.2____1Univ at Albany SUNY

6

Last table. After doing the 5000-15000 group and breaking that into size groups, I decided that that made more sense for the under 5000 group too. So here’s those table re-done by size groups. The **, *, and * mark schools where there is an unusually high number of Peace Corp volunteers–even within this group of high Peace Corps volunteer producing schools.

Under 2250 undergraduates. Note the way they show the top-25 means that a school with less than 1500 or so would have a hard time ever appearing. Making the top 25 is based on total number of volunteers and the school would be “competing” with schools of up to 5000 undergrads. Carleton, Grinnell, Colorado College, Willamette, Macalester and Lewis and Clark stand out as LACs of this size that have an unusually high number of graduates that go into the Peace Corps. Next up are Mount Holyoke, St Mary’s College. After that are a bunch of medium sized LACs that appear 1-3 times. Whitman and Reed’s 4-5 appearances are surprising given how small they are.

Small-Medium liberal arts colleges Size < 2250 undergrads.

SizeAverageAve.per.1000Num.YrsSchool
201418.89.310***Carleton College
170517.510.311***Grinnell College
201217.38.611***Colorado College
200017.28.612***Willamette Univ
207316.88.110***Macalester College
217916.87.710***Lewis and Clark College
212615.67.39**Mount Holyoke College
190115.6__8.28**St Mary’s College
147014.710.05Whitman College
225014.5__6.46Denison Univ
137414.410.54Reed College
219114.3__6.52Williams College
193114.27.4____3Allegheny College
167614.28.43Kenyon College
182514.2__7.85Colby College
191514.17.43Conn College
140314.010.0_1Kalamazoo College
142014.09.92Knox College
225013.8__6.21SUNY College of Env
179913.87.73Bowdoin College
130713.710.5_2Bryn Mawr College
185013.77.41Hamilton College
200013.6__6.81Wittenberg Univ
210013.66.51Hamline Univ
130013.610.5_1Beloit College
166313.68.21Pomona College
160013.6__8.51Wheaton College
179113.67.6____1Bates College
189913.67.2______1St Michaels College

2250-3300 undergraduates. This group is the larger liberal arts colleges; at least most are liberal arts colleges. Univ of Puget Sound is the stand out here, appearing every year in the top 25. Next up is St Olaf, Oberlin and Middlebury; they appear 11+ of the 13 years. Then there the Wesleyan, Wellesley, Smith and Colgate group that appears 5-9 times. After that are a bunch of schools that appear 1-4 times.

SizeAverageAve.per.1000Num.YrsSchool
255322.58.813***Univ of Puget Sound
304619.76.511**St Olaf College
290018.46.313**Oberlin College
252618.27.211**Middlebury College
313817.15.49*Wesleyan Univ
247415.96.4_5*Wellesley College
247815.66.38*Smith College
292715.2__5.25*Colgate Univ
233714.56.2____2Luther College
242014.56.03Dickinson College
245014.4__5.94Gustavus Adolphus College
310014.24.6____2Pacific Lutheran Univ
230114.16.14Clark Univ
245113.8__5.61Gettysburg College
236013.85.8____2Barnard College
234413.75.81Hobart and William Smith College
239813.7__5.71St Lawrence Univ
330013.64.1____1Valparaiso Univ
245013.65.61Vassar College
227813.66.01Trinity Univ

3300-5000 undergraduates. This group is small but bigger than your typical liberal arts college and won’t necessarily be described as a “liberal arts college” if you google them. There are three schools that stand out in this size class and appear 11+ of the 13 years: Gonzaga University (WA) appears every year, Univ of Mary Washington appears all but 1 year, and Dartmouth appears all but 2 years. After that Wake Forest, Evergreen State College, Seattle Univ, and Bucknell Univ appear 6-9 times.

SizeAverageAve.per.1000Num.YrsSchool
483722.84.713**Gonzaga Univ
438320.94.812**Univ of Mary Washington
430720.44.711**Dartmouth College
481215.83.38*Wake Forest Univ
419315.63.7_9*Evergreen State College
463115.23.36*Seattle Univ
356515.2__4.37*Bucknell Univ
365414.84.0____3Univ of Portland
466114.53.15Case Western Reserve
387914.1__3.65Rice Univ
358814.03.9____3Brandeis Univ
364413.93.82Hope College
403413.8__3.41Butler Univ
353313.83.9____2Pepperdine Univ
346713.73.91Seattle Pacific Univ
364013.7__3.82College of St Benedict
386413.73.5____1Fort Lewis College
399013.63.4______1Calvin College

7

This post is really interesting to me, my son is a Peace Corps volunteer and a Whitman graduate. I know two more Whitman grads from his graduating class (2014) who are also in the Peace Corps, according to your stats there are probably more. Whitman is socially conscious and stresses community involvement, so it’s not surprising.

8

@bopambo It’s is interesting that almost all of the Washington and Oregon schools appear on the top of these lists (so high per undergrad # of Peace Corps volunteers given the size of the school).
On the small list: Gonzaga, Whitman, Univ of Puget Sound, Evergreen State Univ, Willamette Univ, Lewis & Clark, Seattle Univ, Reed College show up often. (SPU, Univ of Portland, PLU show up at least once)
Medium: Western WA Univ is a top producer
Large: Univ of WA & Univ of Oregon are top producers while Oregon State shows up 2x. UW has been the top 1-3 overall producer for the last 10 years.

These are the only states where this happens, where many small, medium, and large schools are high per undergrad producers and almost all the LACs and universities in the state appear on the lists.

9

Here’s the top Peace Corp producing schools in the 15000 and up category.

15001-25000 undergraduates. In this size group, Univ of Oregon, Univ of NC, Univ of VA, Boston Univ and UC Santa Cruz stand out as having unusually high (>3) volunteers per 1000 undergrads. UC Santa Barbara is almost with them. After that the per 1000 undergrads rate drops a bit.

SizeAverageAve.per.1000Num.YrsSchool
2055269.13.413***Univ of Oregon
1841568.83.713***Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill
1566965.04.113***Univ of Virginia
1645655.23.413***Boston Univ
2060752.72.612**Univ of California Santa Barbara
1623148.63.013***Univ of California Santa Cruz
1914439.62.15*James Madison Univ
1924539.2_2.06*Univ of Kansas
1875735.61.9___3Univ of Pittsburgh
2447634.81.44*Univ of Iowa
1729530.4__1.82Univ of Nevada
1801630.31.7___1Clemson Univ
1638728.51.77Miami Univ Oxford
1509721.8__1.47Syracuse Univ
1802418.21.0___3Appalachian State Univ
1513217.51.23GA Institute of Tech
1609717.41.1_1Cal Stat Chico

25001-35000 undergraduates. In this size group, Univ of Wisconsin Madison, Univ of WA, Univ of Colorado, Univ of Michigan and UC Berkeley stand out as having unusually high volunteers per 1000 undergrads. A step down are Univ of Minnesota, Colorado State and UCLA. Of course the schools which show up >10 times and have >40 volunteers a year are also big producers, but the mentioned schools stand out as being especially high producers.

SizeAverageAve.per.1000Num.YrsSchool
29302101.63.513***Univ of Wisconsin Madison
3109997.23.113***Univ of Washington
2701092.13.413***Univ of Colorado Boulder
2839582.72.913***Univ of Michigan Ann Arbor
2749679.22.913***Univ of California Berkeley
2894263.52.213**Univ of Minnesota Twin Cities
2562262.62.413**Colorado State Univ
2958561.62.113**Univ of California Los Angeles
3287851.81.613Univ of Illinois Urbana Champaign
2838451.61.813Univ of California Davis
2659047.31.810Univ of California San Diego
3167045.21.48Univ of Arizona
2744344.71.610Univ of Maryland College Park
2572238.71.5__5New York Univ
2688238.51.47Univ of Georgia
2531835.9__1.45Virginia Tech
2590932.51.3___7Northern Arizona Univ
2564832.21.32Oregon State Univ
2949731.2__1.11Purdue Univ
3262130.80.9____2Florida State Univ

35000 and more undergraduates. These are really big schools. Mighigan State, Univ of TX Austin and Univ of FL appear almost every year in the top 25 but they tend to have fewer volunteers than the smaller top schools above. Obviously >50 volunteers a year is still a lot.

SizeAverageAve.per.1000Num.YrsSchool
39143_72.51.913**Michigan State Univ
3961971.51.812**Univ of Texas Austin
3627667.81.912**Univ of Florida
4474158.51.311*Ohio State Univ
4074253.51.312*Penn State Univ
3836447.51.29Indiana Univ Bloomington
4182841.0__1.08Arizona State Univ Tempe
4954531.10.6____1Texas A & M

10

On a historic note, JFK announced his plans for the Peace Corps on the steps of the University of Michigan Student Union.