<p>Certain schools are known for having extraordinarily devoted alumni while other schools inspire much less enthusiasm from their graduates. What are these schools with strong ties doing right to create these strong alumni ties? What patterns are reproduceable and which are unique to an institution? Finally, should alumni satisfaction play a role in how prospective students go about their college search process and, if so, how should students go about measuring this?</p>
<p>Perhaps it should be asked what do alumni, spanning 50 different classes, have in common? The big alumni donors are almost always people that graduated 30 or 40 years ago. Are they giving money to the institution as it once was or the institution that it is today?</p>
<p>Prospective students need to understand what's behind the enthusiasm or the lack thereof. Is it winning sports teams or a change in administration or a scandal? Is there a downward trend or upward trend? As for measurement, it's easier to measure breadth of alumni commitment than depth of commitment. The percentage of alumni donors doesn't say all that much about the enthusiasm of the donors other than they care enough to make some donation.</p>
<p>At Princeton a big part of the appeal is that Reunions are for everyone, not just the 5-year classes. Reunions is a Thursday-Sunday extravaganza, complete with a parade (the P-rade, as it's known) which winds through campus, oldest alums at the front, and each class is cheered by the others as it goes by. The feeling of camaraderie and school spirit is incredible. The first time I took my husband to Reunions he was astonished, and he now enjoys mine much more than his, which he doesn't bother to attend anymore.</p>
<p>When you make a donation to the school, no matter how small, you are sent a slideshow with beautiful campus scenes and music by one of the a capella groups as a background. It sounds silly, but they're so beautifully done they sometimes bring tears to my eyes. </p>
<p>I'm by no means a big donor, and I go to reunions only at the 5-year marks, but I feel very attached to Princeton and the friends I made there. The school does an excellent job of fostering those feelings.</p>
<p>Alumni (and current student) devotion were tipping factors when I decided to apply to Yale. I had already been accepted to UM and some other prestigious engineering programs (Purdue, Rose Hulman). I was going to apply to a few Ivies, Yale not being one of them. However, during Thnxgiving of my Sr year, I was invited to an info session where the local alumni club hosted three then current undergrads. Their presentation was phenomenal and their energy and devotion to the school was amazing. That night, I went home and pulled out the unopened Yale info that was at the bottom of my closet.</p>
<p>Like booklady's devotion: Yale is able to foster tremendous cameraderie while we attended. As undergrads, we felt EXTREMELY taken care of. Most was thru its unique Residential College system.</p>
<p>My H alumni friends even admit to me that Y alums blow them away in terms of loyalty.</p>
<p>In looking at alumni devotion solely to public institutions, the USNWR reported data for alumni giving shows some great variances in giving levels among the most highly regarded public institutions. This differs from the data for the privates as the most highly ranked and prestigious privates also are the leaders in alumni giving. </p>
<p>In addition, there appear to be rather sharp regional differences among public universities with the top 7 and 9 of the top 11 being located in the South. </p>
<p>Here is the full list for public universities and how they rank compared ONLY to other public universities. </p>
<p>1 , 31% Georgia Tech</p>
<p>2 , 30% NC State</p>
<p>3 , 27% U Alabama
3 , 27% Clemson</p>
<p>5 , 25% U Virginia
5 , 25% W&M</p>
<p>7 , 24% Virginia Tech</p>
<p>8 , 23% U South Carolina
8 , 23% U North Carolina
8 , 23% U Delaware
8 , 23% U Nebraska</p>
<p>12 , 22% Florida State
12 , 22% U Connecticut</p>
<p>14 , 21% Penn State
14 , 21% Kansas State</p>
<p>16 , 21% U Oklahoma</p>
<p>17 , 20% U Arkansas
17 , 20% U Kansas
17 , 20% Auburn
17 , 20% NJ Tech
17 , 20% U Missouri (Rolla)</p>
<p>22 , 19% Purdue</p>
<p>23 , 18% Texas A&M
23 , 18% U Kentucky
23 , 18% U Vermont</p>
<p>26 , 17% Washington State
26 , 17% U Michigan
26 , 17% U Washington
26 , 17% U Florida
26 , 17% U Oregon
26 , 17% UC Santa Barbara</p>
<p>32 , 16% Iowa State
32 , 16% U Pittsburgh
32 , 16% Ohio State
35 , 15% U Georgia</p>
<p>35 , 15% Michigan State
35 , 15% Illinois Tech
35 , 15% U Texas
35 , 15% Rutgers
35 , 15% U Minnesota
35 , 15% UC Santa Cruz</p>
<p>42 , 14% UC Berkeley
42 , 14% UCLA
42 , 14% U Wisconsin
42 , 14% U Illinois
42 , 14% U Iowa
42 , 14% U Maryland
42 , 14% U Denver</p>
<p>49 , 13% Indiana U
49 , 13% U Mass
49 , 13% U San Diego</p>
<p>52 , 12% UC Davis
52 , 12% U New Hampshire</p>
<p>54 , 11% UC Irvine
54 , 11% SUNY-Bing
54 , 11% U Tennessee
54 , 11% Arizona State
58 , 10% SUNY-Stony Brook</p>
<p>59 , 9% U Missouri
59 , 9% U Buffalo
59 , 9% Colorado State
59 , 9% UCSD
59 , 9% U Colorado</p>
<p>64 , 7% U Arizona
64 , 7% UC Riverside</p>
<p>Other than those two loser Virginia schools tied for 5th place ;) , have you considered athletics as a motivator? Might be hard to get basketball tickets at GT without "donating" to some alumnae organization.</p>
<p>I'm guessing that Hawkette may be thinking of the role of football in particular as a motivator :-). But in general, there is a trend toward higher ranked schools having higher rates of giving. Bear in mind that these schools also have high retention and graduation rates. I'd suggest that to the extent that students and classes bond with one another and move through the university as a relatively intact cohort, there's a greater chance to develop the sense of belonging that leads to alumni giving.</p>
<p>Here's a list of USNWR-ranked schools in crements of 25 (using reputational score as the first tie-breaker, alphabetical order as the second). Giving percentages tend to go down as R and G do: </p>
<p>1 - Princeton - 98% retention - 96% graduation - 60% alumni giving
25- U. of Michigan - 96% ret - 87% grad - 17% giving
50 - Syracuse - 92% - 82% - 20%
75 - Indiana U. - 88% - 72% - 13%
100 - U. of Tennessee - 80% - 60% - 11%
125 - Colorado State - 83% - 65% - 9%
150 - Oklahoma State - 80% - 60% - 17%
175 - U. of Alabama-Huntsville - 76% - 44% - 6%
200 - Wayne State - 73% - 36% - 6%
225 - U. of Toledo - 68% - 46% - 7%</p>
<p>An anecdote from a proud graduate of the University of Florida.
I received a solicitation today as a "P11". That is a parent of a student in the class of 2011 (one week in) for the Princeton Alumni Magazine, which is a WEEKLY! Only $22 per year.
Her older brother also attended an Ivy, but this sets a new standard for binding families to the institution, in my experience.
I would have to say that the volume of correspondence from Princeton compared to my son's school almost defies quantification.
I have to believe they know what they are doing.</p>
<p>Schools like Duke, Holy Cross and Dartmouth combine very long traditions of athletic programs and school spirit. These schools also have established national alumni networks that help fellow alums in jobs and grad. school placement. In 2007, Holy Cross established a record in its annual fund from over 53% of its alumni. Duke and Dartmouth are among the leaders maybe due to a LAC type enviroment and Duke basketball is a huge source of pride for the Dukies.</p>
<p>While percent are fun here are the numbers that matter--Top 10 fundraisers-2005-2006</p>
<p>Top institutions in total support
Stanford University</p>
<p>$911,163,132
Harvard University</p>
<p>$594,941,000
Yale University</p>
<p>$433,461,932
University of Pennsylvania</p>
<p>$409,494,598
Cornell University</p>
<p>$406,228,837
University of Southern California</p>
<p>$405,745,421
Johns Hopkins University</p>
<p>$377,336,025
Columbia University</p>
<p>$377,276,204
Duke University</p>
<p>$332,034,301
University of Wisconsin at Madison</p>
<p>$325,938,048</p>
<p>
[quote]
the Princeton Alumni Magazine, which is a WEEKLY
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's called the Princeton Alumni Weekly, but in practice it doesn't come out that often (it's published 15 times a year). They haven't changed the name because PAW is such a great acronym for a school with a tiger as its mascot. :)</p>
<p>Is it only me, or does anyone else find it strange that in a discussion of devoted alumni no one has mentioned an entire group of schools that dominates alumni donation statistics?</p>
<p>LACs leave most universities in the dust in this regard. Looking at alumni giving rates, LACs fill 8 of the top 10 slots. Looking at the supra-40% figure, only 6 unis hit this mark while 42 LACs do. Does make one wonder ..</p>
<p>Average alumni giving rates:</p>
<p>64% Carleton
61% Amherst
60% Princeton
59% Centre
58% Williams
57% Scripps, Middlebury
55% Bowdoin
54% Davidson
52% Duke, Dartmouth
51% Wesleyan, Swarthmore</p>
<p>I cannot BELIEVE there are 12 posts here without somebody mentioning Notre Dame. </p>
<p>I casually mentioned to a co-worker who I knew was an alum that DD was there and she teared up. It was amazing. I went to a nice school and we all loyally support the team 25 years on but NOTHING compared to this reaction. </p>
<p>The ND loyalty, in my opinion, stems from an unwavering commitment on the part of the school to prepare the children of immigrants for lives as managers, lawyers, engineers, doctors, and educators. DD is in a quad and two of the four in her room are children of immigrants. There are a lot of legacy kids there, it is true, but they came from families of immigrants whose first generation was educated at ND. </p>
<p>Boston College and Holy Cross have a similar mission, and to a lesser extent so do all Jesuit and Holy Cross schools--they are all missionary schools, but they don't convert so much as educate, and the life tranformation that education brings engenders tremendous loyalty.</p>
<p>gadad,
Actually, I was not thinking about sports at all in the creation of this thread and many of the sporting powers have relatively unimpressive rates of alumni giving, eg, UCLA, UC Berkeley, U Michigan, etc. and this is true even when compared to other public universities.</p>
<p>Feeling a strong personal, emotional connection to a college years after graduation is special and not universal. I think that booklady's comments above (# 3) best capture what I was looking for. Her passion for Princeton is so evident and I think sooooo cool as well (and so apparently does her spouse). Same with T26E4 and the contrast between Yale and Harvard alums. </p>
<p>Using USNWR's data, here is the data for the LACs. Very impressive numbers with 38 colleges posting giving rates of 40% or more.</p>
<p>1 , 64% Carleton
2 , 61% Amherst
3 , 59% Centre
4 , 58% Williams
5 , 57% Middlebury
5 , 57% Scripps
7 , 55% Bowdoin
8 , 54% Davidson
9 , 51% Swarthmore
9 , 51% Wesleyan
11 , 50% Wellesley
12 , 49% W&L
12 , 49% Hamilton
12 , 49% Colby
12 , 49% Trinity (CT)
16 , 48% Lawrence
17 , 47% Pomona
17 , 47% Haverford
17 , 47% Claremont McK
17 , 47% Holy Cross
21 , 45% Bates
21 , 45% Whitman
21 , 45% Agnes Scott
24 , 44% Colgate
24 , 44% Mt. Holyoke
24 , 44% Occidental
24 , 44% Furman
24 , 44% Sewanee
29 , 43% Bryn Mawr
29 , 43% Macalester
29 , 43% Kenyon
29 , 43% Bard
33 , 42% Grinnell
34 , 41% Harvey Mudd
34 , 41% Rhodes
34 , 41% Drew
37 , 40% Dickinson
37 , 40% Beloit
39 , 39% F&M
39 , 39% Wabash
39 , 39% Denison</p>
<p>Bear in mind that alumni giving is just one way of measuring alumni support. It's useful because it's quantifiable, but spirit is mostly not quantifiable. Just as an example, Texas A&M really stands out for its spirit and alumni loyalty, even compared to other football-crazy schools. Based on my experiences with graduates, TAMU does a Notre-Dame-like job of getting everyone on the same page and making a huge campus into a community with a distinctive culture. But its giving rate is nothing special, even compared to other state schools.</p>
<p>Also, Illinois Tech (better known as IIT) and U of San Diego are private schools.</p>
<p>I love that Pomona is at 47%. That's perfect. Almost hard to believe it's not manipulated one way or the other.</p>
<p>[Not a dig at Pomona. If this post doesn't make sense, ignore it. If it does, join me in being so entertained!]</p>
<p>Notre Dame and Holy Cross have enjoyed alumni giving rates in the 50% range for years.</p>
<p>The Princeton thing also feeds itself. We go there. We are on a beautiful suburban campus (read, no big city to go hang in:)). It's small. The professors treat us like veritable treasures. The PAW starts coming when you graduate. Your 5-year Reunion is a big deal and let's not even talk the 25-year Reunion. Coming down that P-Rade route with all the classes behind you, the path that ends at the bottom of a hill and the entire graduating class gathered there cheering you on and in this day and age waving banners for GLAD and Asian American students and African American students and the All-American lacrosee team...definite chills. And I am an old hippie who was definitely an odd bird in the Princeton of my day.</p>
<p>And then, you see, we all know that Princeton has great alumni loyalty and we are all reminded that it's part of the brand if you will, and so we all keep giving even more.</p>
<p>In marketing terms they'd say it's the differentiator and we all essentially WANT to create it.</p>
<p>Plus, the culture of Princeton is earnest. Earnest, more than amibitious or brilliant or eloquent or anything else. Princeton is an earnest place. And it's hard to play cool in the face of that.</p>
<p>IMHO.</p>
<p>Indeed. And did we mention the costumes? ;)</p>
<p>I went to an institution where most people felt they got a great education, but also felt, "that's what I paid to for; the university lived up to its part of the bargain."</p>
<p>I think the selective LACs, which are so successful at this, have a different mindset. They invite students to invest in the institution and start forging the bonds between student and institution the moment the kids set foot on campus. There are often first-week orientations that involve bonding activities or even trips with a small group; freshman seminars and later upper-level seminars and research groups create academic bonds; profs frequently have expense accounts for entertaining students in their homes; traditions are cultivated; tour guides are often volunteers; significant numbers of students are involved in the governance of organizations and of the college itself; the percentage of student-athletes (with all the bonding that this entails) is also high; departments are often small enough that students and faculty are on a first-name basis, and before students leave, there's often a send-off week of celebratory partying. I think that many students leave feeling that they not only got a good education, but that they were part of a community.</p>