No big surprises there, but realistically, endowment per student is a far more useful figure. Princeton is the richest, but some LACs like Amherst, Williams, Pomona and Swarthmore have more money per student than nearly any other school.
Or some with large endowments, are not as generous. It’s what you do with it. :-@
Not the size its what you do with it. I have heard that before in another context.
@ThankYouforHelp endowment per student is definitely important, but there are advantages to size as well. There are capital investments/initiatives that schools with big endowments are able to afford while schools with smaller endowments cannot, even if they have a bigger endowment per student.
Oddly enough, I agree with Penn95! 
Larger endowments at research universities benefit from economies of scale, which isn’t the case with Liberal Arts Colleges. In the case of public universities, state funding are an added source of income above and beyond endowment income that should be considered as well.
I would agree with Penn95. Total value of endowment is less relevant than endowment per student. Princeton’s figure is just shy of $2M per current student. Not clear how much of that endowment is spent on education but even if a small percentage of the capital gains or donations each year would go torwards education it would make a difference. What really surprised me is the rate of growth of some of the endowments over the past 10 or 15 years
@penn95 I agree. You can’t build 1/2 of a cyclotron, or a wind tunnel, or an olympic size swimming pool.
@meddy “some with large endowments, are not as generous.”
True, but funds are designated for many things.
Some fund endowed chairs, research, buildings, equipment, financial aid, etc. Also universities with more schools have to spread it around more.
Some of the numbers are inconsistent or wrong. Look at the source for the data. http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/EndowmentFiles/2016-Endowment-Market-Values.pdf
Why isn’t UTexas or Northwestern in the top 10 ahead of Columbia and Notre Dame??
Going off what was said above, I think that the ratio of endowment to the amount of students is more important.
More important than the total size of the endowment, or the per enrolled student size, is the amount that the schools actually spend on students. That data is available through IPEDS, and was discussed on CC previously http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/1773259-why-is-yales-spending-per-student-so-much-higher-than-other-schools.html
Do those things always come from endowment? I feel like a college I’m familiar with near here did a big fundraising thing to build their new pool. People (mostly alumni) donated to that effort specifically. Would the fund holding that money be considered part of the endowment?
@OHMomof2
“Do those things always come from endowment?”
No, they may. or they might come from other funds or resources the school has available.
“Would the fund holding that money be considered part of the endowment?”
Usually it would not be part of the endowment if the money is being raised to be spent in there near future. Usually, funds in an endowment are perpetual. They will spend 4 or 5% annually and target a long-term return that is at least that high.
More specifically, they target a real return (i.e. net of inflation) of 5% or higher to preserve their spending power in the future.
So schools can raise money and use that to build things or begin some special scholarship effort without dipping into endowment. How does that money count with regard to spending per student and similar rankings?
@OHMomof2 “How does that money count with regard to spending per student and similar rankings?”
I assume schools count everything. It is going to improve programs through better facilities, research, and student experience.
Money that is donated to the endowment, however, does not count as spending because it isn’t spent.
@much2learn thank you.
So endowment is just part of the picture then, spending and not-endowment accounts tell a financial story about a college also. I wonder where THAT is counted.