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 |