If Your Went to College for Networking Potential, Check Out this Best Alumni Associations List
College Consensus (https://www.collegeconsensus.com), a unique college ratings website that aggregates publisher rankings and student reviews, has published a guide to the 50 Most Supportive Alumni Networks for 2019 at https://www.collegeconsensus.com/rankings/best-college-alumni-networks/.
A college’s active, supportive alumni are a crucial part of institutional and student success, but it’s rare that they get credit for the role they play in higher education. Alumni are more than “people who graduated” – they are mentors, employment counselors, scholarship sponsors, and representatives of what higher education can be at its best. College Consensus wants to put the spotlight on the college alumni organizations that define what alumni can do for their alma mater and the next generation of student leaders with the 50 Most Supportive Alumni Networks for 2019.
Schools in the 50 Most Supportive Alumni Networks are drawn from the CASE Excellence awards, and ranked according to their Consensus Score – the combination of all the published rankings and student reviews aggregated by College Consensus. The full top 50 (in alphabetical order) are:
Amherst College
Bates College
Bentley University
Brigham Young University
Brown University
Butler University
California Institute of Technology
Carleton College
Carnegie Mellon University
Colby College
College of the Holy Cross
Columbia University In The City of New York
Connecticut College
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Georgetown University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Gettysburg College
Hamilton College
Harvard University
Johns Hopkins University
Lehigh University
Middlebury College
Northeastern University
Northwestern University
Oberlin College
Princeton University
Purdue University
Rice University
Santa Clara University
Smith College
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
Trinity University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Davis
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Notre Dame
University of Richmond
University of Southern California
University of Texas at Austin
University of Virginia
University of Wisconsin Madison
Wake Forest University
Washington University in St. Louis
“Very few students really take the alumni association into account when they’re researching where they want to go to college,” as the editors of College Consensus note; “Why should you bother? It’s such a long way into the future, and how does it really impact you anyway?” But as the 50 Most Supportive Alumni Networks ranking demonstrates, “Researching the alumni association of your top choice colleges should be part of any prospective student’s college search.” It’s not only the fact that graduates will one day be alumni; it’s that ” alumni are often heavily involved in recruitment,” interviewing candidates. What’s more, “alumni are a major force in sponsoring scholarships, and they’re often the ones deciding who gets paid and who doesn’t.”
Perhaps most importantly, College Consensus’ editors note, “alumni are key to conquering the job market.” By ranking the best college alumni networks, Consensus wants prospective students to understand the importance of a strong, loyal network: “high-powered alumni offer internships, put in a good word with their colleagues, write recommendation letters, and do everything they can to grease the wheels for their fellow alums.” By highlighting CASE Award winners, “which recognizes a part of colleges and universities that doesn’t generally get the attention they deserve – the staff,” Consensus is pointing students to colleges and universities that will set their life in motion.
