MU graduates report satisfaction with education, lives

Nine in 10 Manchester University graduates who responded to a Gallup survey this year say they are satisfied or extremely satisfied with the education they received from MU. In the same survey, 95 percent of Manchester respondents report they are satisfied with their personal lives today.

About 2,500 randomly selected MU graduates responded to the Gallup-Purdue Index, the first-ever measure of college graduates’ long-term success in their careers and lives. Manchester is among 13 Indiana universities taking part.

Gallup Inc., the well-known polling company, developed standard questions and demographic criteria for participating colleges and universities. Manchester’s results provide a benchmark to help the University gauge how its graduates are doing in relation to college graduates nationally.

MU respondents “agree” or “strongly agree” with the following:

• 89 percent are satisfied with the education they received.
• 85 percent say it was worth the cost.
• 81 percent took out student loans and say that was worth the cost.
• 81 percent say they were well-prepared for life outside of college.
• 90 percent were challenged academically.

“We are very pleased to see these extremely positive results for Manchester University and its graduates,” said John Sampson, president and CEO of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership. “Northeast Indiana is committed to develop, attract and retain talent, and these results demonstrate the direct benefits to our region from this exceptional institution of higher education.”

One satisfied alumna is Elizabeth Reading Hippensteel. She graduated from MU in 2000 with a degree in biology and is a research scientist at DePuy Synthes in Warsaw. She lives in North Manchester with her husband and daughter.

She said the range of classes she chose from the Manchester liberal arts core “gave me the freedom to think outside the box.” They helped prepare her, outside of science classes, with critical thinking skills. That education included international experiences, and now world travel is something she does for business and for pleasure with her family.

Hippensteel also treasured the “accessibility of the professors” who would give students their home phone numbers or have students over for supper. Having grown up in the Chicago area, she had not been accustomed to the intimacy of the community she found at Manchester “… the kindness of everybody” that led to lifelong friendships.

“Manchester exposed me to areas I’d never experienced before,” said Carolyn Ringeisen, a first-generation college student who met the love of her life at Manchester and went on to get a master’s degree and teach accounting after graduating in 1966. “It just lit up a whole new world,” she said. In addition to the strong accounting program, courses in art and music cultivated “an appreciation for the arts that we’ve had our entire lives.” Likewise, required courses in religion and philosophy encouraged the couple to explore their beliefs and values.

She and her husband, Rich, now retired in South Carolina, have endowed two scholarships at the University because they themselves were scholarship recipients. Also a ’66 Manchester graduate, Rich taught mathematics at Colgate University and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, led the mathematics department at Clemson University, was dean of sciences at Old Dominion University and held administrative posts at East Carolina University before serving 10 years as chancellor of the University of Illinois Springfield.

The Indiana Commission on Higher Education on June 13, 2016, released a statewide report regarding participating Indiana institutions. Click here to read the report.

To see more results from the full Manchester survey, click here.

For more information:

Adam Hohman
Assistant Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing
Manchester University
T 800-852-3648
E arhohman@manchester.edu

June 2016