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Grateful Grads 2018 - 200 Colleges With The Happiest, Most Successful Alumni

This article is more than 5 years old.

By Sarah Hansen and Matt Schifrin

The season for college rankings is upon us, and each year media outlets (including this one) vie to create the most insightful listings, often with increasing complexity. However, the best way to evaluate a four-year college education may actually revolve around just one variable - alumni giving. At its core, the goal of most colleges is to produce happy and successful graduates who give back. So instead of crunching the usual ROI metrics --like employment statistics, salaries and job placement stats--Forbes developed a proprietary ranking we call the Grateful Graduates Index.

The index ranks private not-for-profit colleges with more than 500 students using two variables: the median of total private donations per enrolled student over the last seven years, as reported to the Department of Education, and the alumni participation rate, or the percentage of graduates that give back in the form of donations to their colleges each year, regardless of dollar amount. The alumni participation rate, compiled by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), is averaged over three years. Total median dollar donations are given a 70% weighting in the index and the alumni participation is given 30%.

While conventional rankings that measure ROI are typically rigged in favor of large universities and STEM focused schools like Stanford, Caltech, MIT and Columbia University where alumni tend to land higher paying jobs in the fields of tech or finance, Forbes GGI levels the playing field somewhat for smaller liberal arts colleges, whose alumni tend to earn less, but may very well be happier.  Thus colleges like Wellesley College, Hamilton and Carleton College rank above such venerated larger schools as Yale, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2018, Dartmouth College takes the top spot for the second year in a row with a median 7-year donation of $24,000 and average participation rate of 41%, followed by Williams College, Princeton University, and Amherst. Big-name schools like New York University, Villanova University, and Carnegie Mellon University find themselves much lower on the list, despite receiving large dollar donations per student, due to lower alumni participation numbers. Harvard University, the top ranked school of Forbes Top Colleges list, ranks number 30 in terms of alumni happiness and success based on its relatively low participation rate of 18% .

With 2018’s new tax law in place, an overall downward trend in alumni giving may become more pronounced in the next few years. And while it's too soon to see any real effect this fiscal year, Brian Flahaven, Senior Director for Advocacy at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE),  anticipates that donations to colleges and universities may slow further due to new rules related to itemizing and charitable tax deductions that will disproportionately affect small- to mid-size donations. Smaller donations tend to come from younger graduates rather than older, more established donors with a long track record of giving. "That pipeline of new younger donors is really what we're most concerned about," he says.

Megan Morey, Vice President for College Relations at Williams College, says she's seen firsthand a decline in donations from younger alumni. As a result, Williams is developing new methods to encourage engagement among new graduates, whether through volunteer programs in which community volunteer hours are matched with donations, or through programs that allow alumni to direct their gifts to specific areas of interest. "We're working very hard to reverse that trend in alumni giving," she says.

Find 2018’s rankings below.

 

 

Rank

 

 

School

 7-Year Median Donations per Student 3-Year Avg Alumni Participation Grateful Grad Index Value
1 Dartmouth College  $24,039 41.3% 99.81
2 Williams College  $23,434 47.8% 99.77
3 Princeton University  $23,536 40.5% 99.67
4 Amherst College  $21,354 45.1% 99.38
5 Davidson College  $19,994 44.5% 99.05
6 Claremont McKenna College  $22,776 33.8% 98.8
7 Haverford College  $19,810 38.1% 98.68
8 Wellesley College  $16,328 49.0% 97.79
9 Wabash College  $19,850 31.4% 97.78
10 University of Notre Dame  $17,472 35.5% 97.64
11 Washington and Lee University  $16,913 36.1% 97.49
12 Bowdoin College  $15,589 44.3% 97.44
13 Carleton College  $14,921 43.0% 97.08
14 Stanford University  $49,756 25.5% 97.33
15 Duke University  $19,984 27.4% 96.94
16 Yale University  $23,853 23.4% 96.43
17 Massachusetts Institute of Technology  $40,499 22.9% 96.38
18 Harvey Mudd College  $18,274 26.4% 96.15
19 Brown University  $19,765 24.9% 96.13
20 University of Pennsylvania  $18,976 24.6% 95.8
21 University of Chicago  $21,435 22.0% 95.4
22 Middlebury College  $14,892 27.6% 95.01
23 Hamilton College  $12,100 39.3% 94.79
24 California Institute of Technology  $52,693 20.1% 95.04
25 Pomona College  $14,897 26.2% 94.61
26 Colby College  $11,446 42.4% 94.36
27 Colgate University  $11,296 38.0% 93.85
28 Rice University  $14,286 25.3% 93.97
29 University of Southern California  $14,700 24.4% 93.94
30 Harvard University  $28,974 18.2% 93.9
31 Washington University in St Louis  $16,049 21.4% 93.4
32 DePauw University  $12,358 25.7% 92.65
33 Cornell University  $18,848 18.6% 92.89
34 Smith College  $11,806 25.8% 92.16
35 College of the Holy Cross  $9,492 44.2% 91.79
36 Whitman College  $10,374 30.7% 91.7
37 Vassar College  $13,180 22.0% 91.91
38 Swarthmore College  $9,910 33.9% 91.59
39 Mount Holyoke College  $10,153 29.0% 91.06
40 Wesleyan University  $9,725 31.6% 90.96
41 Hollins University  $12,220 21.9% 91.09
42 Oberlin College  $11,210 23.6% 90.75
43 Reed College  $10,686 25.0% 90.66
44 Lawrence University  $9,919 26.4% 90.06
45 Knox College  $9,624 27.9% 90.01
46 Trinity College  $10,002 25.7% 89.98
47 Lafayette College  $9,296 29.2% 89.79
48 Kenyon College  $8,725 34.1% 89.64
49 Wake Forest University  $13,129 17.7% 89.44
50 Sewanee-The University of the South  $ 9,038 26.2% 88.57
51 Saint Mary's College  $8,718 28.0% 88.47
52 Northwestern University  $16,378 14.8% 89.01
53 Bryn Mawr College  $8,522 27.6% 87.97
54 Scripps College  $11,608 17.8% 88.19
55 Bucknell University  $8,617 26.1% 87.75
56 Union College  $7,913 31.9% 87.6
57 Centre College  $7,623 36.7% 87.57
58 Grinnell College  $7,668 32.4% 87.09
59 Ripon College  $8,354 22.7% 86
60 Randolph-Macon College  $6,884 38.9% 85.8
61 Bates College  $6,805 40.6% 85.7
62 Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art  $9,181 19.3% 85.86
63 Connecticut College  $8,105 23.2% 85.68
64 Wesleyan College  $9,097 19.4% 85.77
65 University of Tulsa  $12,449 14.4% 86.06
66 Berea College  $12,857 14.1% 86.07
67 Hampden-Sydney College  $7,376 27.5% 85.33
68 Agnes Scott College  $7,603 25.6% 85.36
69 Wells College  $7,468 26.7% 85.34
70 Johns Hopkins University  $16,583 12.2% 86.12
71 Earlham College  $9,398 17.9% 85.35
72 Randolph College  $11,733 14.4% 85.35
73 Vanderbilt University  $8,928 18.0% 84.59
74 Ohio Wesleyan University  $9,248 16.2% 83.8
75 Columbia University  $12,613 12.4% 83.98
76 Southern Methodist University  $10,406 13.9% 83.34
77 Georgetown University  $8,010 18.2% 82.87
78 The College of Wooster  $7,548 19.8% 82.75
79 Rhodes College  $6,068 32.1% 82.21
80 Franklin and Marshall College  $6,725 23.7% 82.29
81 Carnegie Mellon University  $9,483 13.9% 82
82 Emory & Henry College  $6,721 21.7% 81.43
83 Bennington College  $9,200 14.0% 81.65
84 Wheaton College (Ill.)  $7,451 17.6% 81.12
85 Boston College  $6,818 19.5% 80.58
86 Wheaton College (Mass.)  $7,290 17.2% 80.35
87 Case Western Reserve University  $8,405 14.4% 80.52
88 Washington & Jefferson College  $8,127 14.9% 80.46
89 Emory University  $9,110 13.1% 80.48
90 Skidmore College  $6,399 20.4% 79.73
91 Beloit College  $7,279 16.3% 79.65
92 Southwestern University  $6,381 19.7% 79.26
93 Westmont College  $9,228 12.0% 79.36
94 St Lawrence University  $6,471 18.5% 78.87
95 Denison University  $7,170 15.7% 78.89
96 Northland College  $9,598 11.2% 78.93
97 Birmingham Southern College  $6,690 17.0% 78.52
98 Texas Christian University  $6,949 16.0% 78.44
99 Cornell College  $6,237 18.6% 78.14
100 University of Rochester  $7,037 15.3% 78.12
101 Illinois Wesleyan University  $5,597 21.4% 77.2
102 University of the Ozarks  $6,797 15.2% 77.3
103 Wofford College  $5,963 18.4% 77.01
104 Villanova University  $5,521 21.1% 76.74
105 Augustana College  $6,052 17.6% 76.8
106 Hampshire College  $6,829 14.6% 76.81
107 Occidental College  $6,620 14.6% 76.14
108 Pitzer College  $5,711 18.2% 75.86
109 Gettysburg College  $5,070 23.2% 75.61
110 Macalester College  $4,565 31.0% 75.13
111 Catawba College  $7,002 12.4% 74.9
112 Furman  $5,285 18.8% 74.41
113 Fisk University  $4,674 24.9% 74.18
114 Lehigh University  $5,750 16.0% 74.32
115 St Olaf College  $4,743 22.9% 73.8
116 Yeshiva University  $8,536 9.4% 74.29
117 University of Richmond  $4,964 20.1% 73.65
118 Millsaps College  $5,103 18.9% 73.64
119 University of Miami  $6,662 12.4% 73.88
120 Juniata College  $4,511 24.7% 73.19
121 Babson College  $6,181 13.5% 73.53
122 Saint Norbert College  $7,750 10.0% 73.42
123 The College of Idaho  $3,959 42.3% 72.68
124 Concordia College at Moorhead  $5,418 15.9% 72.85
125 Tufts University  $5,107 17.6% 72.73
126 John Brown University  $7,228 10.5% 72.92
127 Saint Vincent College  $4,763 19.1% 72.01
128 Transylvania University  $4,368 22.9% 71.66
129 Washington College  $5,229 15.4% 71.56
130 Brandeis University  $5,492 14.2% 71.58
131 Luther College  $4,464 20.4% 71.09
132 Loras College  $5,268 14.8% 71.22
133 Colorado College  $4,482 19.4% 70.65
134 Lake Forest College  $4,415 20.1% 70.63
135 Hobart William Smith Colleges  $3,927 26.3% 70.05
136 Saint Johns University  $4,422 19.2% 70.15
137 Sarah Lawrence College  $5,663 12.1% 69.94
138 LaGrange College  $5,279 13.2% 69.61
139 Heidelberg University  $4,736 15.5% 69.2
140 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology  $4,278 18.6% 68.88
141 Gustavus Adolphus College  $4,346 17.2% 68.37
142 Dordt College  $4,532 15.8% 68.33
143 Ursinus College  $4,074 19.4% 68.12
144 Presbyterian College  $4,267 17.2% 67.84
145 Eureka College  $5,225 12.1% 68.03
146 New York University  $7,759 6.8% 67.89
147 Trinity University  $5,163 12.2% 67.8
148 University of Puget Sound  $4,993 12.7% 67.62
149 Dickinson College  $3,534 25.8% 67.01
150 Taylor University  $5,348 11.3% 67.45
151 Spring Hill College  $4,242 16.1% 66.81
152 Hendrix College  $3,803 19.9% 66.52
153 Allegheny College  $3,709 20.6% 66.26
154 Hope College  $3,923 18.1% 66.28
155 Coe College  $4,183 16.0% 66.35
156 Providence College  $3,992 17.3% 66.18
157 Northwestern College  $3,997 17.2% 66.14
158 Albion College  $4,392 13.9% 65.65
159 Marquette University  $4,810 12.0% 65.72
160 Wartburg College  $3,869 17.3% 65.35
161 Salem College  $4,045 15.8% 65.36
162 Tulane University of Louisiana  $4,922 11.3% 65.45
163 Goucher College  $4,324 13.8% 65.18
164 Queens University of Charlotte  $4,671 12.1% 65.11
165 William Jewell College  $5,531 9.1% 64.91
166 Millikin University  $5,463 9.1% 64.55
167 Roanoke College  $3,589 18.6% 64.15
168 Calvin College  $3,769 16.7% 64.18
169 Mills College  $4,610 11.5% 64.09
170 Saint Anselm College  $3,647 17.2% 63.68
171 Lycoming College  $3,419 18.3% 62.64
172 Fairfield University  $4,124 12.8% 62.75
173 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute  $5,589 7.7% 62.65
174 Westminster College  $3,685 15.1% 62.2
175 Culver-Stockton College  $3,979 13.1% 62.16
176 St Bonaventure University  $3,594 15.6% 61.95
177 Creighton University  $4,423 10.8% 62.03
178 Clarkson University  $3,708 14.5% 61.72
179 College of Saint Benedict  $3,613 14.9% 61.48
180 Graceland University-Lamoni  $3,378 16.4% 60.94
181 Moravian College  $3,332 16.8% 60.89
182 Ringling College of Art and Design  $7,679 1.9% 59.56
183 Austin College  $4,062 11.5% 60.77
184 Santa Clara University  $3,790 13.0% 60.69
185 Central College  $4,210 10.8% 60.66
186 Thiel College  $4,207 10.6% 60.28
187 Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College  $3,000 19.6% 59.87
188 Hiram College  $3,889 12.0% 60.21
189 West Virginia Wesleyan College  $3,193 16.7% 59.62
190 Eastern Mennonite University  $3,447 14.1% 59.38
191 Covenant College  $5,441 6.2% 59.11
192 University of Northwestern-St Paul  $6,291 4.2% 58.56
193 Drake University  $4,287 9.5% 59.15
194 Hood College  $3,899 10.9% 58.78
195 Worcester Polytechnic Institute  $4,248 9.1% 58.28
196 Alma College  $3,161 15.1% 57.91
197 Baylor University  $4,427 8.3% 57.97
198 Hanover College  $3,597 11.7% 57.72
199 Texas Lutheran University  $4,991 6.4% 57.31
200 Morningside College  $2,770 18.4% 56.92