According to Time, those behind the tool “rounded up the 107,408 living people whose Wikipedia profiles list at least one alma mater in the U.S., and scored each according to the length and breadth of his or her page on the site-the bigger the number, the greater the influence.”
Using four data points for each alumni’s page – “the number of words in the text, the number of internal links to other Wikipedia pages, the number of external links, and the number of categories to which the page belonged,” according to the site – each alum received a number. These numbers were then added up to give a score to each school.
DePaul has a score of 30.9 with politicians like former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley and Alderman Ed Burke of Chicago’s 14th Ward topping the list. Pete Wentz, Gillian Anderson and John C. Reilly also make the list.
Compared to our neighbors to the north and south, Northwestern and University of Chicago, DePaul falls short. UChicago has a score of 134.3, Northwestern with 111.1.
But compared to other schools in Chicago, DePaul comes out on top, outranking Loyola, University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia College and Roosevelt.
See how DePaul compares to other Chicago and Illinois schools with the graphic to the right.