I’ve gone down the Ephelia rabbit hole (or should I say, heifer hole) and uncovered this gem.
Lots of fun examples of rabid Williams alumni showing their loyalty in creative ways in this article, but the kitchen backsplash must be one-of-a-kind.
Lots of fun examples of rabid Williams alumni showing their loyalty in creative ways in this article, but the kitchen backsplash must be one-of-a-kind.
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Just from the mentions on this thread so far, it’s clear Michigan wins.
This will happen anywhere there is air on earth.
I would edit the thread title to append … (besides Michigan).
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Notre Dame, Clemson, Howard
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Because it’s so true! Everywhere I wear my Michigan hoodie, I get so many people saying “Go Blue” to me. I wear my USC hoodie and have never had anyone approach me to say “Fight on”
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Williams, Princeton and Howard in no particular order.
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My daughter had the same experience all over Europe with her Purdue swag and Boiler Up! Even in smaller towns and while hiking. Definitely feels like a small world.
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I’m an alum, but I don’t have the warmest feelings about Stanford, and I’m not the only one that feels that way 
I do agree with other posters here that the UMich alums I’ve known seem to have a lot of school spirit!
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lol. My friends still go to the football games, etc, but you’d have to know them to know they went there. For some reason, most of the ones I know are med school grads. One of my neighbors went for undergrad but is very self-deprecating about it - “oh, when I went just about anyone could get in”… I’m sure that’s not true,but it’s definitely different to some of the arrogance I see from grads of certain other schools.
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Princeton reunions are a different breed for sure. A bunch of my HS classmates went there and a number have NEVER missed a year… For those that don’t know, unlike most schools it isn’t just about 5 year cycles…they go annually! that is committment.
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My dad used to go, my sister attends her Richmond homecoming every year. When her daughter was a student, she’d tell my sister she wasn’t free that weekend, my sister let her daughter know she wasn’t there to see her
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Princeton reunions are truly something special. I had the chance to experience one firsthand during my son’s graduation in 2022, when roughly 25,000 alumni returned to campus for a weeklong celebration. Amid the sea of orange and black, I snapped a candid photo of a P-Rade participant from the Class of 1952, proudly wearing his class beer jacket. Only later did I realize that the man I photographed was none other than James Baker.
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I’m surprised nobody has mentioned TAMU Aggies yet. The alumni enthusiasm is pretty intense!
Rice would be another in the “low key” genre (as was said about Carleton). Lots of alums return for Beer Bike, and there’s a fun tongue-in-cheek Facebook group entitled “Let’s me honest: we can’t get a million fans for Rice University.” Wearing Rice swag results in the occasional enthusiastic greeting, but also a lot of unoriginal comments from people who don’t understand why a common food is worth celebrating with a sweatshirt.
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This is a few years old, but still seems to ring true – JMU is the most recommended university in the United States - JMU. – Full disclosure, I teach at JMU. I also attended big school spirt schools (think orange and “we are”) for undergrad and grad and JMU (while maybe less well know) more than rivals the spirit and love from students and alums!
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that is an interesting list, I am actually a little surprised to see Harvard in top 20 - I know a LOT of harvard alums who are “eh” on the undergrad experience (crossing generations)..none that are super super loyal. (I know a very braggy, but that is different than love, IMO). I mean they may go to reunions or the game, but more to see people than to sing fight songs.
I agree with MIT above - the MIT folks are I know are VERY loyal and “into” MIT.
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Here in Boston, we have a saying…“how do you know someone went to Harvard? He tells you.”
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I had a coworker who talked about dropping the “H bomb” to pick up women. It was very ick. 
And that is definitely not a Boston area specific quip:)
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Wow. I go to my wife’s reunions every 5 years. I would divorce if I had to do that annually!
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Town & Country named these schools, of which the majority have been mentioned in this topic, as engendering some of the more enthusiastic alumni networks:
Bucknell
Claremont McKenna
Dartmouth
Fordham
Hamilton
Ohio State
Penn State
Princeton
Smith College
Texas A&M
UAlabama
Notre Dame
Richmond
Villanova
Virginia Tech
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So funny you say this. A good friend of mine went to Stanford as a very competitive athlete. She’s still close to her athlete friends, but otherwise seems somewhat disconnected from Stanford itself. I would thought there’d be more of a school-wide bond, but it didn’t seem to take.
Another anecdote was from a college admissions YouTuber who went to Yale. He discussed that the Yale alumni network was surprisingly poor. He noted that the clubs he was in was far more important for his network than the overall Yale network.
And 100% agree on the Michigan alums. I’ve got a few in the family and they CONSTANTLY talk about it. I’d also say that Northwestern alums seem pretty tight but that might be more to do with them having an occasionally winning basketball team.
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St. John’s College (of MD/NM)
Xavier (XULA)
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