Go to a grateful college

Gratitude: 

— n
  a feeling of thankfulness or appreciation, as for gifts or favours

Much research has come out recently on the positive impact of practicing gratitude. “We’ve studied more than one thousand people, from ages eight to 80, and found that people who practice gratitude consistently report a host of benefits:

 

Physical
• Stronger immune systems
• Less bothered by aches and pains
• Lower blood pressure
• Exercise more and take better care of their health
• Sleep longer and feel more refreshed upon waking

Psychological
• Higher levels of positive emotions
• More alert, alive, and awake
• More joy and pleasure
• More optimism and happiness

Social
• More helpful, generous, and compassionate
• More forgiving
• More outgoing
• Feel less lonely and isolated.

Source: Greater Good Society

Greatful people like to give back. Greatful college graduates are likely to do someting for their alma mata. Certainly many alumni have strong affections for their colleges, willingly giving time and money to help the old school. 

So if graduates really were greatful for the college experience, they would give back. Obviously, not everyone strikes it big and can afford to give a lot–Cal Tech tops the list when it comes to average contribution at over $56,000. But what if ever alumni gave some money–wouldn’t that indicate a high level of engagement and satisfaction? Over half the graduates at Williams donate whiel a paultry 13% gave to Columbia. So a writer over at Forbes calculated this out figuring, “The idea is that the best colleges are the ones that produce successful people who make enough money during their careers to be charitable and feel compelled to give back to the schools that contributed to their success.” He took some flack for focusing on teh monetary side and thus made adjustments to this year’s ranking to award 20% to the actual percent of alumni giving. 

His list excluses schools of less than 1000 students and public universities. You can see the complete list here, but the top 50 are below. 6 of the top 10 are liveral arts colleges. 

 

 

 

10-Year Median Private Donations

AVERAGE ALUMNI PARTICIPATION RATE

GRATEFUL Grads Index

1 Princeton University

29,330

46%

100

2 Dartmouth College

27,464

44%

100

3 Williams College

23,346

53%

99.9

4 Claremont McKenna College

22,459

42%

99.8

5 Bowdoin College

19,598

44%

99.4

6 Amherst College

18,752

52%

99

7 Davidson College

18,044

48%

98.6

8 Wellesley College

17,958

47%

98.5

9 Brown University

21,694

29%

97.4

10 Stanford University

30,826

28%

97

11 Duke University

28,521

28%

96.8

12 Yale University

30,033

28%

96.7

13 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

36,763

25%

95.1

14 University of Notre Dame

15,319

37%

94.8

15 Bryn Mawr College

16,272

30%

94.7

16 California Institute of Technology

56,706

24%

94.5

17 Carleton College

14,876

50%

93.6

18 Haverford College

14,463

43%

92.2

19 University of Pennsylvania

16,614

24%

91.6

20 Harvard University

25,122

19%

91.4

21 University of Chicago

16,683

24%

91.4

22 Middlebury College

14,033

42%

90.6

23 Washington and Lee University

14,018

38%

90.5

24 Johns Hopkins University

22,194

16%

89.2

25 Pomona College

13,415

40%

87.7

26 Vassar College

13,813

30%

87.7

27 Rice University

14,638

24%

87.3

28 Columbia University

20,047

13%

87.2

29 Mills College

16,922

15%

86.8

30 Swarthmore College

13,139

39%

86.2

31 Washington University in St. Louis

14,376

21%

84.6

32 Northwestern University

15,200

16%

84.3

33 Trinity College

12,772

42%

84

34 Brandeis University

14,045

22%

83.8

35 Colby College

12,092

39%

79.2

36 Berea College

13,531

17%

78.7

37 University of Rochester

13,683

15%

78.3

38 University of Southern California

12,729

24%

77.9

39 Reed College

12,089

26%

74.5

40 Cornell University

12,551

19%

73.8

41 Smith College

11,555

32%

73.8

42 Hamilton College

11,426

46%

73.7

43 Kenyon College

11,206

37%

71.7

44 Colgate University

10,690

40%

66.8

45 Wake Forest University

11,403

22%

66.6

46 Wofford College

11,216

24%

66.1

47 Vanderbilt University

11,407

19%

64.8

48 Case Western Reserve University

10,552

15%

54.6

49 Wesleyan University

9,358

41%

53.6

50 University of Tulsa

10,268

18%

53.3