UNC Climbs in Peace Corps' List of Top Campuses

Posted on Jan. 30, 2006

The Peace Corps’ latest ranking of college graduates who are serving as volunteers shows Carolina has moved up three spots, to No. 11, on the top 25 list for large schools. A total of 59 UNC alumni currently serve as volunteers, and 921 have served since the organization was founded in 1961.

For the 20th year in a row, the University of Wisconsin at Madison took the top spot with 104 volunteers serving in the field. The University of Washington was second 102 alumni. Among medium-sized schools, the University of Virginia again claimed the No. 1 spot with 80 volunteers, and for the first time, Dartmouth College took the top spot for small schools with 37 alumni currently serving as volunteers. Wake Forest University jumped from the No. 22 spot among small schools last year to No. 11 this year with 20 volunteers.

Adding a new category this year, Peace Corps has also tabulated rankings for volunteers with advanced degrees. Ranking No. 1 on the graduate schools list is the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor with 22 volunteers. Wisconsin was second with 18 alumni serving, and George Washington University was third with 17. In that list, UNC was ranked No. 29 with six alumni with advanced degrees serving as volunteers.

Schools are ranked according to the size of the student body. Small schools are those with less than 5,000 undergraduates, medium-size schools are those between 5,001 to 15,000 undergraduates, and large schools are those with more than 15,000 undergraduates.

In 2002, the Peace Corps opened a recruiting office on campus, based in University Career Services.

Most Peace Corps volunteers have been college graduates. Currently, 96 percent have undergraduate degrees and 13 percent have graduate degrees.

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Carolina alumni in the Peace Corps were featured in the July/August 2003 issue of the Carolina Alumni Review.

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