“Gallup, in partnership with Purdue University and Lumina Foundation, [on May 6, 2014] released results from the inaugural Gallup-Purdue Index that finds there is no difference in workplace engagement or a college graduate’s well-being if they attended a public or private not-for-profit institution, a highly selective institution, or a top 100-ranked school in U.S. News & World Report. The study found students who were closely engaged with faculty or participated in an internship-type program were more likely to be engaged at work and have high well-being. The study also outlines a relationship between the level of student debt and a graduate’s well-being and entrepreneurial experience.  This comprehensive, nationally representative study of more than 30,000 U.S. college graduates with Internet access will be released annually for the next five years and is based on Gallup’s decades of research experience in employee engagement and well-being An engaged individual is involved in and enthusiastic about their work, is loyal, and productive. Those who are thriving are strong, consistent and progressing. The Gallup-Purdue Index is not a new ranking or rating system but a response to the call for increased accountability in higher education. This study is the first of its kind and will serve as a national benchmark.  The study found that 39% of U.S. graduates are engaged at work without distinction between public vs. private not-for-profit colleges, but there was a substantial difference between graduates of for-profit institutions and the rest. While most graduates are thriving in one or more key dimensions of well-being – purpose, social, financial, community, and physical – 11% are thriving in all five categories. Graduates who had at least one professor who made them excited about learning, cared about them as a person, and was a mentor, have more than double the odds of being engaged at work and being thriving in well-being. Only 14% of graduates strongly agreed with all three of these questions.  Three times fewer graduates who took out between $20,000 and $40,000 in undergraduate student loan debt are thriving in their well-being compared with those with no school loan debt. Twenty-six percent of graduates with no debt have started their own business, compared with 16% for those with $40,000 or more.”