The Richest Private Colleges by Endowment

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

GoLocalWorcester Business Team & Graphiq

When it comes to receiving financial contributions, private universities seem to have plenty of donors willing to contribute. In 2013, the University of Southern California received a $70 million donation from Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young, better known as Dr. Dre. Not all donors are well-known celebrities, but contributions small and large can add up quickly for the big-name schools.

Using the most recent data reported to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), StartClass ranked the top 25 richest private colleges based on endowment. According to the NCES, endowment assets are "gross investments of endowment funds, term endowment funds and funds functioning as endowment for the institution and any of its foundations and other affiliated organizations."

Endowment funds are funds whose principal is nonexpendable and that are intended to be invested to provide earnings for institutional use. Term endowment funds are funds which the donor has stipulated that the principal may be expanded after a stated period or on the occurrence of a certain event. Funds functioning as endowment are established by the governing board to function like an endowment fund but which may be totally expended at any time at the discretion of the governing board. These funds represent non-mandatory transfers from the current fund rather than a direct addition to the endowment fund, as occurs for the true endowment categories.

Of the 25 schools on the list, only five have at least 10,000 undergraduate students, with New York University (24,985 undergraduate students) and USC (18,739) leading the way. The University of Pennsylvania, with 11,548 undergraduate students, has the largest undergraduate enrollment of schools in the top 10.

#25. California Institute of Technology

Endowment: $2.12 billion

Total undergraduate students: 983
Tuition: $43,362
Average SAT score: 2310

#24. Williams College

Endowment: $2.14 billion

Total undergraduate students: 2,072
Tuition: $48,310
Average SAT score: 2190

#23. Amherst College

Endowment: $2.15 billion

Total undergraduate students: 1,792
Tuition: $48,526
Average SAT score: 2169

#22. University of Richmond

Endowment: $2.31 billion

Total undergraduate students: 3,346
Tuition: $46,680
Average SAT score: 1976

#21. Brown University

Endowment: $3 billion

Total undergraduate students: 6,548
Tuition: $47,434
Average SAT score: 2165

#20. Johns Hopkins University

Endowment: $3.39 billion

Total undergraduate students: 6,357
Tuition: $47,060
Average SAT score: 2150

#19. New York University

Endowment: $3.44 billion

Total undergraduate students: 24,985
Tuition: $46,170
Average SAT score: 2015

#18. Vanderbilt University

Endowment: $4.05 billion

Total undergraduate students: 6,851
Tuition: $43,838
Average SAT score: 2230

#17. Dartmouth College

Endowment: $4.47 billion

Total undergraduate students: 4,289
Tuition: $48,108
Average SAT score: 2195

#16. University of Southern California

Endowment: $4.59 billion

Total undergraduate students: 18,739
Tuition: $48,280
Average SAT score: 2070

#15. Cornell University

Endowment: $4.65 billion

Total undergraduate students: 14,282
Tuition: $47,286
Average SAT score: 2130

#14. Rice University

Endowment: $5.55 billion

Total undergraduate students: 3,926
Tuition: $40,566
Average SAT score: 2190

#13. University of Chicago

Endowment: $6.54 billion

Total undergraduate students: 5,738
Tuition: $49,380
Average SAT score: 2262

#12. Washington University in St. Louis

Endowment: $6.72 billion

Total undergraduate students: 7,401
Tuition: $46,467
Average SAT score: 2230

#11. Emory University

Endowment: $6.98 billion

Total undergraduate students: 7,829
Tuition: $45,008
Average SAT score: 2060

#10. Duke University

Endowment: $7.04 billion

Total undergraduate students: 6,626
Tuition: $47,243
Average SAT score: 2195

#9. Northwestern University

Endowment: $7.5 billion

Total undergraduate students: 9,048
Tuition: $47,251
Average SAT score: 2205

#8. University of Notre Dame

Endowment: $8.19 billion

Total undergraduate students: 8,448
Tuition: $46,237
Average SAT score: 2145

#7. Columbia University in the City of New York

Endowment: $9.22 billion

Total undergraduate students: 8,100
Tuition: $51,008
Average SAT score: 2220

#6. University of Pennsylvania

Endowment: $9.58 billion

Total undergraduate students: 11,548
Tuition: $47,668
Average SAT score: 2190

#5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Endowment: $12.43 billion

Total undergraduate students: 4,512
Tuition: $45,016
Average SAT score: 2230

#4. Princeton University

Endowment: $20.58 billion

Total undergraduate students: 5,391
Tuition: $41,820
Average SAT score: 2250

#3. Stanford University

Endowment: $21.47 billion

Total undergraduate students: 7,019
Tuition: $45,195
Average SAT score: 2215

#2. Yale University

Endowment: $23.86 billion

Total undergraduate students: 5,477
Tuition: $45,800
Average SAT score: 2255

#1. Harvard University

Endowment: $36.43 billion

Total undergraduate students: 10,338
Tuition: $43,938
Average SAT score: 2265

Learn More About Colleges at StartClass