Alumni give the university an excellent rating, are proudest of Baylor's high-quality education,
and support university efforts to reach and serve all alumni nationally.

Anew national survey by a leading academic survey research institute shows that large majorities of Baylor University alumni are "very proud" to be graduates and report a stronger bond than ever to their alma mater.

The survey of national Baylor alumni was conducted by telephone from Nov. 13-19, 2012, by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. This latest survey -- the third in a series of studies of national Baylor alumni conducted in 2007, 2010 and 2012 -- was commissioned by Baylor's Division of University Marketing and Communications.

"The results of this latest scientific survey of alumni show that Baylor graduates across the nation are enthusiastically supportive of their alma mater," said Baylor President Ken Starr. "Engaging Baylor alumni is both a high privilege and weighty responsibility. The university and our alumni have worked together over the past decade to establish a rich variety of new programs that connect, empower and serve as never before our alumni nationally and around the world."

A national sample of 609 randomly selected Baylor alumni answered a variety of questions concerning their alma mater, including their level of connectedness to Baylor, the quality of education they received at the university, the likelihood that they would recommend Baylor as a "top choice" university to their college-age children and their support for various alumni programming options.

Some of the key findings from the survey:

• Baylor alumni have a strong affinity with their alma mater, with more alumni than ever (98 percent) reporting a special bond or connection to Baylor and 96 percent of Baylor alumni saying they are proud to be a graduate of Baylor University.
• Almost all Baylor alumni (91 percent) say they are interested in maintaining a connection to Baylor and consider it important that Baylor University support and staff an alumni outreach program.
• About 8 in 10 alumni give Baylor an excellent rating, while a majority of alumni now say Baylor ranks among the best private universities in the nation, up from 35 percent in 2007.
• Baylor alumni are positive ambassadors for the university, with 88 percent of alumni saying they would recommend Baylor as a "top choice" school to their college-age children.
• Nearly 50 percent of alumni would recommend Baylor primarily because of academic quality, with "quality education" the most mentioned response when alumni were asked to identify what comes to mind first about Baylor.
• A large majority of Baylor alumni nationally readily identify Ken Starr as Baylor's president. Among those who say they know enough to rate the job the president is doing, 96 percent rank his job performance as good or excellent, with nearly two-thirds saying excellent.

"These data are extraordinarily helpful in guiding us towards continuous improvement in our active outreach, communications and programming for Baylor alumni worldwide," said John M. Barry, vice president for marketing and communications at Baylor. "We are always excited by the opportunity to serve alumni better and will move forward with changes according to the wisdom of what this survey tells us our alumni want and need. Baylor alumni love their alma mater, they want to engage with the university actively, and they have high regard for our president and his focus on reaching out to and serving all Baylor alumni."

"Baylor is on a powerful upward trajectory. By God's grace, and with the support and active partnership of our 160,000 alumni worldwide, we have the opportunity to propel our university to new heights," Starr said. "I am convinced that Baylor's future progress under our Pro Futuris strategic vision will depend on the energetic and focused engagement of all Baylor alumni working together to realize the remarkable promise of our beloved university. We eagerly look forward to continuing our enthusiastic partnership with Baylor alumni as we build Baylor together."