The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or graduate school search.
When a school has a large endowment — a fund of donated money that the institution invests — it can generate more cash for everyone on campus.
Professors may get higher salaries, and students — in some cases — may get lower tuition and fees. Endowment spending can also go toward classroom technology, research, maintaining campus buildings and other perks that help a college or university give students a quality education.
As the country bounces back from a recession, school endowments are growing. Among 832 institutions, endowments returned an average of 15.5 percent for the 2014 fiscal year after subtracting fees, compared with 11.7 percent for the 2013 fiscal year, according to the NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments.
Some universities are in a league of their own when it comes to the size of their endowments. Harvard University’s endowment was $36,429,256,000 at the end of fiscal year 2014. It had the largest endowment among 1,140 ranked institutions that submitted data to U.S. News in an annual survey.
[Find out which National Universities are the most innovative.]
The amount is almost $4 billion more than Harvard’s endowment at the end of fiscal year 2013, when it also topped the list of 10 schools with the largest endowments.
Princeton University increased its endowment by roughly $2 billion, but it fell to No. 4 on the list. It had the third-largest endowment at the end of fiscal year 2013.
Among the 10 schools with the largest endowments for 2014, the average endowment was $16.2 billion.
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The University of Nebraska–Kearney had the smallest endowment among all schools: $65,712. UNK is a Regional University in the Midwest; the 10 schools with the largest endowments are National Universities.
National Universities offer a range of degree programs at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels and are committed to doing groundbreaking research.
Below is a list of the 10 universities with the most money in their endowments at the end of fiscal year 2014. Endowments were examined by campus, not across public university systems. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| School name (state) | End of fiscal year 2014 endowment | U.S. News rank and category |
|---|---|---|
| Harvard University (MA) | $36,429,256,000 | 2, National Universities |
| Yale University (CT) | $23,858,561,000 | 3, National Universities |
| Stanford University (CA) | $21,466,006,000 | 4 (tie), National Universities |
| Princeton University (NJ) | $20,576,361,000 | 1, National Universities |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | $12,425,131,000 | 7, National Universities |
| Texas A&M University–College Station | $10,521,034,492 | 70 (tie), National Universities |
| University of Michigan–Ann Arbor | $9,603,919,000 | 29, National Universities |
| University of Pennsylvania | $9,582,335,000 | 9, National Universities |
| Columbia University (NY) | $9,223,047,000 | 4 (tie), National Universities |
| University of Notre Dame (IN) | $8,189,096,000 | 18 (tie), National Universities |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find endowment data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed nearly 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2015 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The endowment data above are correct as of Oct. 6, 2015.
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10 Universities With the Largest Endowments originally appeared on usnews.com
