My Richmond Experience

Father_of_the_Boarder
Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:04:40 +0000

Someone wrote:
One measure of the satisfaction of a school’s grads is its alumni giving rate. The higher the alum giving rate the more pleased the school’s grads are with their alma mater.

U.S. News & World Report reports that only 28% of the Richmond alums donated to the school during the prior year. That 28% rate ranked 92d among other liberal arts colleges in the country and was significantly lower than its peer institutions.

Richmond’s alumni giving rate lagged behind its academic peers (i) Sewanee—University of the South (TN), (ii) Whitman College (WA) and (iii) Occidental College (CA)…

US News ranks Richmond overall among liberal arts colleges tied with Sewanee—University of the South (TN) at #34 followed by Whitman College (WA)and Occidental College (CA).

Sewanee—University of the South had an alumni giving rate of 44%;
Whitman College alum giving rate was 46%;
Occidental College (CA) alumni giving rate was 45%;

all significantly higher than Richmond’s 28% alumni giving rate.



Since then a new USNWR came out and the numbers fell.

Alumni giving is now 24%

The rank is now 147

The graduation rate estimated at 87% (for six years) was actually 83%.

Freshmen retention rate dropped to 91%.

Business program was ranked 71.

I am not one who has an interest in this battle, but want arguments to be supported by facts. If you wish to rely on USNWR as reason(s) to support your arguments, please use their figures accurately.

I would add what Princeton Review has written:

Rank List Category
#16 Homogeneous Student Population Demographics
#7 Little Race/Class Interaction Demographics