True to Their School
DETERMINING which colleges provide the best return on investment shouldn’t be as complicated as theoretical physics. It requires just two variables: the median amount of a school’s donations per student over a decade and the percentage of graduates who give back to their school every year.
These figures form our annual Grateful Grads Index of private nonprofit colleges: The top ROI schools are those with alumni who have both the means and the desire to give back. The first metric uncovers the highest-profile institutions; the second sheds light on smaller liberal-arts schools that attract a lot of giving but fewer blockbuster gifts. For the full list of 200 universities, visit forbes.com/gratefulgrads2016. 10-year median donation per student 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
$29,330 28,695 22,891 22,502 23,276 21,320 19,708 31,936 30,725 17,451 30,826 18,576 17,155 22,542 15,182 45,501 14,876 14,743 15,314 14,843 15,789 24,511 53,845 19,070 25,122 3-year avg. alumni participation rate
47% 43 51 45 38 46 45 32 29 53 28 35 38 26 42 24 44 39 35 37 29 21 20 22 19 WHEN DONALD TRUMP needs a briefing on the state of american oil and gas, he calls Harold Hamm. “He absolutely gets it,” says Hamm, the 70-year-old ceo of continental resources. “He believes in american energy for america’s future.”
u.s. frackers and drillers, Hamm contends, could double domestic oil output to 20 million barrels per day within a decade: “every time we can’t drill a well in america, terrorism is being funded.” Trump liked Hamm’s message enough to give him a prime speaking slot at July’s Gop convention. “it felt like being the ringmaster at a circus,” Hamm says the day after his speech. “it’s not the rotary.” so what about reports that Hamm is the leading candidate to become The donald’s secretary of energy? “i’ve never talked to Trump about that. i have a full-time job. i haven’t given it a minute’s thought.”
The 13th child of oklahoma sharecroppers, Hamm recalls picking cotton barefoot as a child. He started working at a gas station at 16, then cleaned oil refinery tanks and hauled water in trucks. since drilling his first well in 1971, Hamm has built continental into one of the nation’s biggest independent oil companies. The recent price drop had personal consequences for him: With his fortune falling in tandem, he didn’t stuff as much money into super pacs in this election cycle as he usually does. as for his business, shares of continental hit a six-year low in January before nearly tripling in the wake of oil’s partial recovery.