The 15 Colleges with the Best Alumni Networks, Town & Country

College Search & Lists
21

Me, too.

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22

St. Olaf has an incredible network in the upper midwest!

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23

About 80% of my graduating class went on to get advanced degrees of one sort or the other, so it was really our terminal degrees and job experience that opened the most doors, IMO. However, my younger sister who entered the job market immediately after graduating from Barnard has benefited greatly from their career center over the years.

24

Not real. Michigan’s not part of it. :rofl:

25

I haven’t done either. My school is known for rigorous education (among those who have heard of it) so maybe I’ve benefited from that perception, but I’ve never tried to benefit from alumni connections. In terms of favoring other alums, I don’t do this either. Instead, when I mentor, precept, help people make connections, help people apply for fellowships etc, I do it mainly for those from open access commuter type schools. They are the ones who can really use a boost.

I think that alumni networks are sort of gross, truthfully.

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26

I would 100% help a graduate from my school if they asked.

The majority of my donations go to the University’s NIL program, not the school itself.

Priorities!

27

You know my feelings about the list, so no need to repeat them here.

28

Deleted.

29

I will say we have found Kansas State alumni network to be outstanding. My son has met many influential alumni and found jobs and mentoring from many.

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30

And then good reason for #2 (public) and it’s amazing because few consider it a top public school - i.e. the UCs, Michigan, UVA, W&M, Texas, etc.

Not saying it’s not - just how it’s seen.

So perhaps Princeton Review has it right - and there’s a wonderful situation that many might be passing by unknowingly.

Obviously on the CC, the school has a sparkling reputation - and many that pass it by due to “perception” are likely passing by a great place!!

31

Is it Kansas State or U Kansas that holds the record for Rhode Scholarships - mainly because 90% of the Kansas scholars (two are guaranteed per state) are from that university?

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32

by size –

33

I commented above, but answer is yes and yes in the last 6 months (and I am 25+ years out). And yes I went to one of those schools above.

If an alum reaches out on linked in I will speak with them on phone, pretty much 100% of time and probably will hand them off to someone else. When I was young broke student I randomly met another alum (my parents age) on a train outside the US, the person gave me their bus pass and invited me to dinner. (as an other random example). I could go on and on

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34

When I’m helping a first gen graduate of my alma mater it doesn’t feel gross. A kid whose mom drives a school bus and dad is a cop likely doesn’t have a single relative, family friend, or adult who can help with a launch strategy. Yes, there’s usually a HS guidance counselor who has stayed involved, and often the kid’s pediatrician or dentist (SO MANY medical professionals help their first gen patients with shadowing, getting a first job, etc.). But a kid who is interested in sustainability or environmental policy-- yes, career services (which is how they get to me)-- I don’t know that helping a fellow alum who doesn’t have a lot of social capital is “gross”. Especially since I try to be helpful to anyone who asks me.

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35

Re: 13 Largest College Alumni Networks in the USA - Largest.org

That list is incomplete. For example, Arizona State University is not in that list, but has at least 600,000 living alumni, which would be no lower than #3 on that list if it were included.

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36

I wondered about that – other large publics mysteriously absent.

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37

But would you give a lesser level of help to a similar person who graduated from a different college?

38

I help anyone who asks to the limit of my ability and time. It is not feasible for me to sign up as a career mentor at 3,000 universities. I am signed up at my own alma mater, and am just as thrilled to help a kid from U Mass Framingham or CUNY or an open access community college as I am to help kids who are referred from my college’s career center. If you know a way to maintain a full time job, take care of family members, etc. while being available to the graduates of every institution in America, you’ll let me know.

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39

This morning I had the opportunity to welcome my banks class of 51 (rising senior) summer interns.

Out of curiosity, once I concluded my remarks and took QA, I asked them by a show of hands “who had already made contact with an alumni member of their school at our bank”. All but a few kids raised their hands. This may be based on the fact that 30+ of our interns come from target schools so they have plenty of alum to call on.

I then asked how many used alumni to identify opportunities or support their search for interns. Seemingly every hand went up. I asked if that was through career services areas or other means.

The consensus was career services role is now primarily limited to help with resume creation and to coordinate in campus visits.

All the kids suggested that they heavily used LinkedIn to identify and contact alumni and that generally alums were responsive. Most of these students attend t-30 schools.

IB I am sure is a bit unique, but undeniably having access to a strong, well connected and engaged alumni network has a meaningful impact on career results.

Personally I receive and respond to numerous alum from my LAC, B school and unsolicited random kids who need help as a way of paying it forward given the support I received decades ago when I came from a relatively disadvantaged background.

As distasteful as you may find them, generous alum were the people who first exposed me to the opportunities of a career on Wall Street. My father was a public school teacher and I had no previous exposure to the profession or any idea how to seek a job. I was blessed to have gotten into my undergraduate school but it would have proven meaningless unless that academic experience had translated into meaningful career opportunities. The bridge to those opportunities was my alumni network.

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40

I did NOT come from a disadvantaged background (two parents who were teachers) but my frame of reference was shockingly narrow. There was someone on my hall freshman year who described her dad as “a banker” but to me it didn’t add up. She was one of the few “lifestyles of the rich and famous” types (there were kids with a LOT more money as I later learned, but they kept a low profile and lived low key college lives while on campus) and to me- who knew kids who had parents who worked “at banks” (which I thought was the pinnacle of middle class respectability- wear a suit, be a bank teller or assistant manager) and they didn’t have anything close to a “bankers” lifestyle.

Live and learn. My parents friends were librarians and social workers and other teachers and LOTS of adults in the helping professions. My HS classmates parents were more of the same, plus those who owned small retail businesses. Local fabric store (loved that place). Carpeting and rugs- then expanded into vinyl flooring which was a big deal. My aunts and uncles-- one was a pharmacist, one owned a taxi which was a big deal since it had taken years of saving to purchase the cab from the company which owned it. Do you think ANY of them were helpful in networking post college? Wonderful, hard working, honest people. But not exactly good at giving advice as to how to leverage a college degree, and ALL of them saying the same thing- “If you had taken typing in HS like we told you, you’d never be unemployed.”

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