Loma Linda University topped all other colleges and universities in the nation for graduates who find meaning in their work, based on a survey of 1.4 million college and university alumni, according to PayScale.com.
Each year, PayScale, an organization that provides salary, benefits and compensation information, surveys alumni from more than 1,000 U.S. colleges and universities.
In addition to collecting data on income, the company also asks, “Does your work make the world a better place?” This year, Loma Linda ranked in the Number 1 spot. PayScale reported that 91 percent of Loma Linda graduates said working in their jobs helped to “make the world a better place.”
In the same survey, Loma Linda was also ranked among the top for the highest starting salary.
The PayScale survey was reported in The Atlantic and The Washington Post.
“I’m delighted by this ranking,” said Dr. Richard H. Hart, president of Loma Linda University Health. “As our alumni are living out our mission every day, bringing wholeness to all the ends of the earth, this recognition makes me proud of the heritage of our university, the spirit and dedication of our faculty and staff, and all of our medical professionals who train our students for lives of real service—locally, nationally and globally.”
The ranking elevates Loma Linda far ahead of Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, often ranked in the top three spots on some college surveys. In the PayScale alumni survey on meaningful jobs, only about 65 percent of the three Ivies’ alumni answered yes to the question.
The next two institutions were University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas (88 percent) and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (86 percent).