College endowments, a collection of tax-exempt donations and investments used to advance an institution's mission, vary widely. While some hover in the millions, others, such as at Harvard University in Massachusetts, reach well into the billions.
Topping the list at $50.7 billion at the end of fiscal year 2023, Harvard has the largest endowment among U.S. News-ranked schools, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Yale University in Connecticut has the second-highest endowment, totaling $40.7 billion.
Both of these Ivy League schools have higher endowments than the gross domestic product of many countries, such as Nicaragua, Iceland and Senegal, per World Bank data.
The average endowment at the top 20 colleges with the biggest endowments is nearly $18.6 billion. All but three of these schools – Texas A&M University, the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor and the University of Virginia – are private.
But multibillion-dollar endowments are not common in higher education. Of the 1,402 U.S. News-ranked colleges featured in the most recent IPEDS data set, the average endowment size is about $560.9 million.
That amount is significantly less among the 20 universities with the smallest endowments, whose average comes out to about $184,352. The lowest is $4,663 at the University of Puerto Rico—Cayey, with nearly half of the bottom 20 in Puerto Rico and California.
The majority of the schools on the top-20 endowments list are among the highest-ranked colleges by U.S. News: 15 are ranked in the top 20 of National Universities, which are often research-oriented institutions that offer bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees.
Many of these colleges come with a hefty price tag. Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, for instance, is charging $65,230 in tuition and fees for the 2024-2025 academic year.
However, schools with more wealth are usually able to offer financial aid packages that keep the cost of attendance down. Johns Hopkins is among schools that meet the full demonstrated need, without loans, of all admitted undergraduates who qualify for financial assistance, so families aren't necessarily paying the sticker price.
The chart below shows the 20 colleges with the largest endowments at the conclusion of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2023. All happen to be National Universities. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
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