Schools with most school spirit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7 pages and no one has the right answer….

….it’s Wellesley.

School spirit is just a crude way of saying pride. And the most tangible way to measure pride is what is the chance a randomly selected alum would Go out of their way to help the school or another randomly selected alum for a random task/ask.

It’s Wellesley.

Spirit isn’t throwing a hoodie on and cheering for 4 hrs on a Saturday

Spirit is how far you would go for your “gang” só to speak.

Wellesley alums back each other and their school like none other.

Outside of the military.

I agree that Wellesley would probably be one. The top schools in my view would probably be the ones where the graduates feel they have shared, transformative experiences - experiences above and beyond rooting for the football team. This probably is more likely in schools like the military academies and military schools (Army, Navy, but also schools like VMI), single sex schools (Wellesley), challenging schools (MIT, Caltech), smaller schools with a unique character (Williams, W&L).

[Anonymous]

Any SEC school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't belive no one has mentioned Ole Miss.

They’ve never lost a party. 💙

The upcoming football season is promising. Lots of great recruiting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School spirit isn’t measured by how many people show up at a football game or some such nonsense but by the percent of alums who donate to their alma mater. By that metric none of the top schools are big state U but rather schools like Wellesley as the PP pointed out (ranked 10th I believe), Princeton, Williams, etc.

Please send in money. Even 5 dollars will help. That way when we report to USNWR that we have a high percentage of graduates you donate to our college, our ratings won’t suffer as much. Maybe even improve!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

PP. You see much more Longhorn alum spirit outside the Amtrak corridor. It’s not that they’re runner up to Michigan, it’s that the east coast loves to spend 4-7 years in Ann Arbor before reassembling here.

West Coast and mountain state tech and energy hubs are bigger draws for expat Texans



That’s the point. You see Michigan swag it seems everywhere.

My point is that you *don't* see Michigan swag all over Los Angeles or Seattle or Park City or Phoenix. You do, however, see so much UT burnt orange.

That’s BS. Michigan has far more alumni in CA than Texas. Texas grads stay in Texas at a much higher rate.

The GDP of the entire state of Michigan is about the same as the Dallas metropolitan area alone.

…….which has nothing to do with the title of this thread

Nor did the comment that Michigan has more alumni in CA than in Texas.

Not entirely true. More highly spirited alumni=more swag. The point is and was that Michigan has a very sizable amount of alumni in all corners of this country. That’s why you tend to see more Michigan apparel than other schools throughout the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School spirit isn’t measured by how many people show up at a football game or some such nonsense but by the percent of alums who donate to their alma mater. By that metric none of the top schools are big state U but rather schools like Wellesley as the PP pointed out (ranked 10th I believe), Princeton, Williams, etc.

You can’t make that comparison without controlling for the wealth of the graduates.

Because donating $10 a year would financially cripple a state U grad? Not a great endorsement for the quality of education received.

You really think it's coincidence that the schools you mentioned are all known for attracting old money, uber-wealthy families? The wealthy somehow have more spirit?

[Anonymous]

This is like asking which beverage has the most flavor.
You know what answer you will get. All yet none.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School spirit isn’t measured by how many people show up at a football game or some such nonsense but by the percent of alums who donate to their alma mater. By that metric none of the top schools are big state U but rather schools like Wellesley as the PP pointed out (ranked 10th I believe), Princeton, Williams, etc.

You can’t make that comparison without controlling for the wealth of the graduates.

Because donating $10 a year would financially cripple a state U grad? Not a great endorsement for the quality of education received.

You really think it's coincidence that the schools you mentioned are all known for attracting old money, uber-wealthy families? The wealthy somehow have more spirit?

Academic research has shown that alumni giving is correlated with positive undergraduate experience.

Title: Alumni Satisfaction with Their Undergraduate Academic Experience and the Impact on Alumni Giving and Participation

Findings: "Results from this research indicated that there were significant increases in both alumni giving and alumni participation based on the degree of alumni satisfaction with the undergraduate academic experience. As alumni satisfaction increased so did the odds of alumni giving and alumni participation. Thus alumni who are satisfied with their academic experience are more likely to be involved (i.e., give and/or participate) with the university than those alumni who are not as satisfied with their academic experience."

Link: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057/palgrave.ijea.2140220.pdf


Title: Patterns of giving to one’s alma mater among young graduates from selective institutions

Conclusion: "The single biggest determinant of the generosity of alumni donations is satisfaction with one’s undergraduate experience."

Link:http://theunbrokenwindow.com/Higher%20Ed/Readings/Monks%20EER%20Young%20Gifts.pdf

[Anonymous]

You can find a ranking online for anything.

https://www.collegexpress.com/lists/list/15-colleges-with-the-most-school-spirit/2600/

USC
Alabama
Michigan
Penn State
LSU
University of Florida
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Stanford
University of TX at Austin
Indiana
Auburn
UCLA
Oregon State
Naval Academy

[Anonymous]

And here's another ranking based on alumni giving. https://www.forbes.com/sites/annacorradi/2019/08/15/grateful-grads-2019-follow-alumni-love-and-money-into-the-best-colleges/?sh=63c6636ca269

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can find a ranking online for anything.

https://www.collegexpress.com/lists/list/15-colleges-with-the-most-school-spirit/2600/

USC
Alabama
Michigan
Penn State
LSU
University of Florida
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Stanford
University of TX at Austin
Indiana
Auburn
UCLA
Oregon State
Naval Academy

USC? They hardly ever sell out their football stadium. Some spirit of Troy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School spirit isn’t measured by how many people show up at a football game or some such nonsense but by the percent of alums who donate to their alma mater. By that metric none of the top schools are big state U but rather schools like Wellesley as the PP pointed out (ranked 10th I believe), Princeton, Williams, etc.

You can’t make that comparison without controlling for the wealth of the graduates.

Because donating $10 a year would financially cripple a state U grad? Not a great endorsement for the quality of education received.

You really think it's coincidence that the schools you mentioned are all known for attracting old money, uber-wealthy families? The wealthy somehow have more spirit?

Academic research has shown that alumni giving is correlated with positive undergraduate experience.

Title: Alumni Satisfaction with Their Undergraduate Academic Experience and the Impact on Alumni Giving and Participation

Findings: "Results from this research indicated that there were significant increases in both alumni giving and alumni participation based on the degree of alumni satisfaction with the undergraduate academic experience. As alumni satisfaction increased so did the odds of alumni giving and alumni participation. Thus alumni who are satisfied with their academic experience are more likely to be involved (i.e., give and/or participate) with the university than those alumni who are not as satisfied with their academic experience."

Link: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057/palgrave.ijea.2140220.pdf


Title: Patterns of giving to one’s alma mater among young graduates from selective institutions

Conclusion: "The single biggest determinant of the generosity of alumni donations is satisfaction with one’s undergraduate experience."

Link:http://theunbrokenwindow.com/Higher%20Ed/Readings/Monks%20EER%20Young%20Gifts.pdf

Not denying that there's a relationship, but wealth is not irrelevant. Controlling for it would yield more interesting results.

[Anonymous]

Those reports should have a mandatory disclosure of how often the universities hit up their alumni to donate, how much they spend on fundraising efforts, how often they hold events that are ultimately a fundraising endeavor (even if they're not pitched that way) etc. I graduated from a private university. DH graduated from a public university. We have one student who currently attends a private university. One who recently graduated from a public university. Guess which category of school contacts us waaaaay more often for donations?

Seems kinda like common sense this is something you'd want to consider.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can find a ranking online for anything.

https://www.collegexpress.com/lists/list/15-colleges-with-the-most-school-spirit/2600/

USC
Alabama
Michigan
Penn State
LSU
University of Florida
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Stanford
University of TX at Austin
Indiana
Auburn
UCLA
Oregon State
Naval Academy

There are a million of these lists and they all look different. Here's another one:

https://www.collegemagazine.com/10-colleges-most-school-spirit/

10. Missouri
9. Michigan State
8. University of Louisville
7. Indiana
6. Kansas
5. Stanford
4. University of Dayton
3. Alabama
2. Florida
1. Ohio State

[Anonymous]

You’ve got your big, public universities with great sports programs (so whether that’s football, basketball or something else, it makes the college experience super fun and then keeps you connected after you’ve graduated):

Penn State
UNC
Tennessee
Alabama
Georgia
Ohio State
UVA
Va Tech
Michigan
Wisconsin
UT Austin
Oregon
Kansas
Arkansas
Clemson
Auburn
Kentucky
Indiana
Ole Miss
Texas A&M
And so on

And then they’re some private schools that come to mind:
Duke (but everyone else will hate you for it, so buyer beware)
Syracuse
Princeton
Harvard
Sewanee
Wake
Gonzaga
Stanford
Notre Dame
Villanova