5 Benefits of Joining Your College Alumni Association

After you leave college, you quickly realize how special of a time it was in your life. Though you can’t get it back, you can still keep up with friends’ personal and professional lives via alumni groups. Explore the five benefits of joining your college alumni association.

Networking and Connections

Let’s face it: finding a job right out of college is challenging. While some people almost instantaneously find work, others can struggle. Joining your alumni association is one of the simplest and most effective ways to maximize your professional reach when looking for work. The vast array of alumni who work in almost every sector will give you a foot in the door at innumerable businesses worldwide. Connect with people who wouldn’t have thought twice about your job application or direct message via your college’s alumni internal pathways.

Meet New and Current Students

Networking goes both ways—some business leaders are just as desperate to hire high-quality, well-educated people as job seekers are to find a well-balanced, decently paying place to work. Joining your college alumni association opens lines of communication with current and new students who would otherwise be unreachable.

Alumni Events and Gatherings

Homecoming is a wonderful time of year for past graduating classes to recongregate for alumni events. As the years progress, you can reconnect with old friends and roommates you’ve fallen out of touch with. You can also find nearby alumni who share similar interests and meet up closer to home. If you discover a bunch of die-hard fans of your college’s sports teams, you should gather to watch games throughout the season. Throw on your favorite spirit wear and make the most of your friendly gatherings.

Career Services

If your college had a career center for helping students prepare their vocational mindset, you know the value of a dedicated career coach. These services are pivotal for undergrads finding their way. However, these well-connected people often make themselves available to alumni. Though your access to school resources dwindles with time, there may be support waiting for you at career services.

Give Back

As the years pass and you build a career for yourself, you may remember how your alma mater’s reputation or friendly alumni helped you out along the way. These moments of reflection often spur people to give back to their college and help the institution continue its high-quality work.

Understanding the nuances of these five benefits of joining your college alumni association helps newly graduated and far-removed alumni alike find their way in the web of connections. Make the most of your post-graduate experience and meet with like-minded fellow graduates.

Celebrate your alma mater with logoed spirit wear, like our women’s heavyweight sweatshirt, at the Dartmouth Co-Op. That way, you are always on the lookout for fellow graduates.