The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matters to you in your college or grad school search.
Postgraduate school spirit can manifest in many ways. A satisfied alumnus might give back to his or her institution by mentoring current students, for example, or by never missing a home football game. Graduates who look fondly back on their college days may also be more inclined to open their wallets to their alma maters—a statistic that schools track and report to U.S. News.
Each year, U.S. News surveys more than 1,800 schools to glean myriad data points, including a two-year alumni giving rate. In spring 2011, 1,275 colleges and universities reported the two-year average percent of their graduates who donated any amount of money in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. Among those schools, an average of 13.5 percent of alumni donated funds.
From those statistics, the list below—dominated by National Liberal Arts Colleges—was created. Schools that were designated by U.S. News as Unranked were not considered for this report. U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for Unranked programs because the program did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked.
Alumni giving rates are far from the sole indicator of student satisfaction. They do, however, serve as an objective gauge, and are a way to ensure current students directly benefit, since the money often goes to scholarship funds, athletic teams, student organizations, and new campus buildings. Alumni giving rates also account for 5 percent in the 2012 Best Colleges rankings methodology.
Here are the schools that receive funding from the largest percentage of alumni, based on a two-year average:
| School (State) | % of alumni gift-givers | U.S. News rank & category |
|---|---|---|
| Princeton University (NJ) | 61 | 1, National Universities |
| Carleton College (MN) | 59.9 | 6, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Amherst College (MA) | 58.2 | 2, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Middlebury College (VT) | 57.2 | 5, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Williams College (MA) | 56.7 | 1, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Judson College (AL) | 56.1 | RNP*, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Centre College (KY) | 54.5 | 42, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Davidson College (NC) | 53.7 | 11, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| College of the Holy Cross (MA) | 50.7 | 29, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Thomas Aquinas College (CA) | 50.7 | 71, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
*RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one fourth of its rankings category. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.
Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find full alumni giving rate information, complete rankings, and much more.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2011 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists have no influence over U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools.
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