The 13 Largest University Endowments

Colleges and universities are reporting modest increases in their endowments, indicating a return to "relative normalcy," according to Inside Higher Ed.

A recently released report (PDF) from Commonfund and the National Association of College and University Business Officers showed that endowment investments yielded an average 11.9 percent return this fiscal year, a healthy increase from last year's dismal average of -18.7 percent.

Commonfund CEO and President Verne Sedlacek told On Wall Street that although things appear to be looking up for colleges and universities, the return to pre-recession levels will take "three or four years of good markets."

Below, check the postsecondary institutions with the largest endowments -- and see how much their savings grew from 2009 to 2010. Click over to Inside Higher Ed for more data.

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Harvard University: $27,557,404,000

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Pocket change Serious dough

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Comments

[AcademicFreedom]

12:51 PM on 02/23/2011

The government should take these endowments and distribute them equally among other colleges. It is not fair that these universities have so much while so many others have so little.

[wayoutleft]

05:06 AM on 02/19/2011

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b375/cal_101/whigclio.jpg
Princeton, Whig & Clio

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b375/cal_101/scottzelda.jpg
F. Scott Fitzgerald; Triangle, Cottage Club. Princeton, 1913

You can't buy it.

[jo smith456]

09:57 PM on 02/17/2011

no wonder people like George Bush get into such schools.

[novabird]

10:34 PM on 02/16/2011

Because being a student is much more fun when your university is well endowed.

[norepublicanleftbehind]

06:30 PM on 02/11/2011

Please do a story on the history of an endowment. The time it was made, what it designated for and how it has been used since-endowing chairs etc.

[healthanalyst]

02:36 AM on 02/10/2011

UT would have had more except Shrub was gov. But its only used for buildings and one time uses like that. Salaries still come from tight fisted ignorants at the state capitol. And tuition.

When state subsidized tuition, it was great. GOP killed that. Its still great but you need the $$$ and grades to go there. And lots of work to stay.

[m1jones]

12:02 PM on 02/05/2011

This is a misleading statistic which appears to rank the universities in order of how large their endowments are. What would be a better measure of real rank is to divide the endowment by the number of students, faculty, etc. The endowments are like savings accounts for families - they provide steady income to offset the cost of tuition for students and to insure that the institution has enough money to hire the best professors, provide financial aid for poor students, etc.

If you looked at endowment per undergraduate and graduate students, for example, Harvard
would probably still be far in front. But Caltech, with its $3 billion or so for 700 undergraduates and about 3,000 graduates would be way up on the top.

Another relevant statistic is number of professors per student. UC Berkeley would fall right off the list, sadly. Caltech has 1 professor for every 3 students. Both Harvard and Caltech guarantee every student who is accepted with the funds to graduate, as long as they maintain minimum standards. That must be a good feeling.

Interesting that graduates of those schools with the highest ratio of endowment to student body, and the lowest ratio of students to faculty, are greatly in demand for jobs after school. Wonder if these statistics are somehow related? THAT would be an interesting statistic during these tough economic times.

[vonric]

08:31 AM on 02/02/2011

um, what is lacking is a correlation of endowment to the size of the student body. That places the value of the endowment in a different context, and in that context, some of the larger endowments, when placed against a large student body (UT, for example) are not, relationally, that rich.

[CarolinaDem]

09:49 AM on 02/05/2011

Entirely correct. In addition, there's an issue of sorts in the cases of those schools whose location and expertise make them especially useful as beneficiaries of major industries. Oil industry technologies make the Texas research universities especially likely to have comparatively large endowments. Of course the financial 'industry' explains a lot of the Ivy hoards as well. I felt so sorry for them when one of them wrote to me about having lost 8 or 9 billion in the market. Damn. How do you recover, spiritually, from a blow like that? Where do you summon the courage to press on? How can you sustain your confidence in the community of scholars with only ten or fifteen billion bucks? Awful.

[shastaman]

09:26 PM on 02/01/2011

Wow!
that's some serious monies
Wow!

[gomezrules]

06:17 PM on 02/01/2011

And they need Federal money...for what?

[CarolinaDem]

09:51 AM on 02/05/2011

Research that gives them patents to make their faculty and connected business alumni rich so they'll endow the school to satisfy the tastes of the alumni kids. What? You think that ought to involve private money? That stuff's SPOKEN for, young man. Go get your own.

[palindrom]

09:54 AM on 02/05/2011

Research, mostly, and that's awarded through a competitive grant process. Having big endowments makes it possible for them to pay startup costs for top-notch people, who then proceed to get the grants. It's not sinister or secret, but it does tend to concentrate the most effective people into places like these. Which might actually be a good thing in the long run, because then they can collaborate more easily and make actual progress.

[skraeling]

01:56 AM on 02/07/2011

Sadly, the US government seems to have bought into the notion that Harvard grads are indeed superior humans and they seem to appoint others like themselves...My question is if Harvard and the rest of the Ivy League mafia in government and world affairs are so smart, so capable, why then is the world, especially America, a mess? These people might be book smart, but they should stay in the classroom...what the Ivy League, especially Harvard and Yale has done to America is nearly criminal....

[Odysseas Karavel]

04:13 PM on 02/01/2011

odyssey

[yannb]

01:33 PM on 02/01/2011

Go Blue !!!!!!!!!!

[DungBeetle]

02:48 PM on 02/01/2011

Some of that will go to pay off RichRod's remaining contract. What a waste.

[desmoinesdude]

01:16 PM on 02/01/2011

Looks like these were the colleges that didn't invest with Bernie Madoff. BTW, didn't Harvard announce a big program a few years ago to actually spend some of that obscene endowment on a program that would fund tuition for large numbers of poor (but very bright) students. Anyone know how that's working out?

[dudervision]

01:18 PM on 02/01/2011

Stanford does the same thing.

[skraeling]

01:58 AM on 02/07/2011

Stanford actually promotes pragmatism....it produces grads who can create...it is the future, while the Ivy League is the past....

[TobacXela]

01:19 PM on 02/01/2011

Students whose parents make less than $60,000/year go to Harvard for free. I pay $5,000/year, without loans, at Yale under a similar program. So I would say it's working out great.

[desmoinesdude]

01:49 PM on 02/01/2011

That is wonderful. Congrats to you and your achievement/hard work. And thanks for the update.

[democles]

12:39 PM on 02/04/2011

And kids whose parents make over $60K per annum pay $60K.

[Sennin]

01:04 PM on 02/01/2011

Stacking money, using it on nothing or useless things ===> downfall inevitable. In 50 years there be no more colleges. No need.

[OutAtFirst]

01:46 PM on 02/01/2011

Hey everybody, I found Eeyore!

[Todays Illusion]

12:52 PM on 02/01/2011

Interesting that the University of California system produces so many Nobel Prize winners, but not the big buck earning people who fund massive endowments.
 
Not to mention the size of the system and the number of students served as opposed to the size of their endowment.
Taxpayers of California, up to the Regan years were generous in support of both the University of California system and the California State University system.
 
Thank the conservative movement for working hard to strangle both. 
 

[gomezrules]

06:20 PM on 02/01/2011

Proposition 13 was voted into place well after 'the Reagan years' in CA. Sorry if I have confused you with historical facts!

[Todays Illusion]

06:55 PM on 02/01/2011

You are confused and avoided the point.
The conservatives who created Reagan are all from the same movement/group who wrote Proposition 13,
Reagan Gov. of CA 1967-75, Proposition passed 1978. 
 
 Jerry Brown was Gov, but I don't think you can blame Prop. 13 on him.