Boarding School Endowments

Prep School Admissions
1

Boarding School Endowments Ranked By Size :

  1. Phillips Exeter Academy–$1.15 Billion

  2. Phillips Academy–Andover–$970 Million

  3. St. Paul’s School–$602 Million

  4. Deerfield Academy–$532 Million

  5. Culver Academies–$394 M

  6. Lawrenceville School–$372 M

  7. Choate Rosemary Hall–$371 M

  8. Hotchkiss–$362 M

  9. Groton School–$350 M

  10. Peddie School–$321 M

  11. Woodberry Forest–$314 M

  12. Mercersburg Academy–$265 M

  13. Milton Academy–$260 M

  14. Middlesex School–$252 M

  15. Taft School–$238 M

  16. Episcopal High School–$220 M

  17. Cranbrook Schools–$217 M

  18. Loomis Chaffee–$203 M

  19. St. Andrew’s School–$195 M

  20. Hill School–$153 M

  21. St. Mark’s School–$141 M

  22. Northfield Mount Herman–$139 M

  23. St. George’s–$138 M

  24. Thacher–$137 M

  25. Baylor School–$130 M

  26. Berkshire–$124 M

  27. Miss Porter’s–$113 M

  28. Westminster (Ct.)–$95 M

  29. Emma Willard–$93 M

  30. McCallie–$93 M

  31. Cate School–$90 M

  32. Blair Academy–$88 M

  33. Kent School–$87 M

  34. Governor’s–$75 M

  35. Brooks–$71 M

  36. Wyoming Seminary–$60 M

  37. Concord Academy–$56 M

  38. Asheville School–$49 M

  39. Portsmouth Abbey–$44 M

  40. Tabor Academy–$44 M

Bording School Endowments Ranked By Endowment Per Student:

  1. St. Paul’s School

  2. Exeter

  3. Groton School

  4. Andover

  5. Deerfield Academy

  6. Woodbury Forest

  7. St. Andrew’s School

  8. Middlesex School

  9. Hotchkiss

  10. Mercersburg Academy

  11. Peddie School

  12. Thacher

  13. Episcopal High School

  14. Culver Academies

  15. Foxcroft

  16. Lawrenceville

  17. Choate Rosemary Hall

  18. Chatham Hall

  19. Taft

  20. St. Mark’s

  21. St. George’s

  22. Milton Academy

  23. Miss Porter’s

  24. Cate School

  25. Berkshire

  26. Westover

  27. Loomis Chaffee

  28. Hill School

  29. Cranbrook Schools

  30. Emma Wilard

  31. Westminster (Ct.)

  32. Westtown

  33. Holderness

  34. Northfield Mount Herman

  35. Blair Academy

  36. Brooks

2

Thank you for posting this! Source?

3

Mostly from the schools’ websites to verify info. from another boarding school website.

Can be useful for those seeking financial aid.

Also useful to expose readers to more than the usual suspect schools discussed on this site.

4

Would be curious to know the amount per student in addition to the ranking.

For financial aid I like to look at % of students receiving aid, then any info on how much the kids are getting. My primary interest in these figures is relative socio-economic diversity which is important to my family.

5

I agree that it is important to know the percentage of students receiving financial aid at each of these schools.

I will start compiling that list now, but may need a full day as I have other matters needing attention.

Thank you for your insightful comment.

6

With respect to precise amount of endowment per student, it is just an exercise in researching the number of students and then dividing the endowment by the number of students.

For example, St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire has 430 students and a $602,000,000 endowment.

Dividing $602 M by 430 students = $ 1,400,000 per student endowment.

St. Paul’s School has the largest endowment per student among all boarding prep schools.

St. Paul’s School has about 40% of students receiving financial aid. The financial aid awards tend to be very substantial.

7

I only know my personal situation but I do find it interesting that if I sort the FA offers received by RedSoxKids from various schools the order deviates quite a bit from endowment/student.

8

Financial aid for US students can be much better at smaller schools with more international full pay students.

9

Interesting posts. Anyone willing to name names ?

10

I don’t know about the relationship between FA granted and endowment level.

But I’d bet money that if you regressed head of school compensation against endowment size you’d find a very significant and positive correlation!

11

Not willing to post names, but I know for fact that what @center says is true. Many small schools struggle to fill their beds with domestic boarders and offer generous scholarships to US boarding students as a way to attract them. If they don’t, they will find themselves with a shrinking boarding population. As the boarding population shrinks, they admit more international students as a way to fill the beds and pay the bills. It’s a viscous cycle that ends up turning off the domestic boarders because the boarding population is now almost all international. I’ve watched it happen with my own eyes and it is depressing.

12

A partial list of percentage of students receiving financial aid (does not reflect amount of financial aid per student):

  1. Culver Academies–49%

  2. Mercersburg Academy–49%

  3. Andover–48%

  4. St. Andrew’s School–48%

  5. Exeter–47%

  6. Kent–45%

  7. Woodberry Forest–44%

  8. Hill School–40%

  9. Blair Academy–40%

  10. Peddie–40%

  11. St. Paul’s School–39%

  12. Groton School–37%

  13. Hotchkiss–37%

  14. Choate Rosemary Hall–35%

  15. Taft–35%

  16. Deerfield Academy–35%

  17. Milton Academy–35%

  18. Middlesex School–35%

  19. Episcopal High School–34%

  20. Cate School–33%

  21. Cranbrook Schools–33%

  22. Loomis Chaffee–33%

  23. St. George’s–30%

  24. Thacher–29%

  25. Lawrenceville–25%

  26. Concord Academy–25%

13

I will tell you a top 10 endowment school gave the LEAST amount of aid to SwimKid1. Like by A LOT!!! Their expected contribution was over 5x what a school not even on the list was. When we requested more aid, the process was so difficult, we decided not to bother. The school that is not on the list, requested to see the offer from a different school and matched it. All it took was an email. Another school on your list is known to have a very small financial aid budget. Their website says that they can not fulfill needs and you may need to look at other sources to pay. Endowment isn’t everything.

14

For FA purposes, it might be helpful to look at schools that meet full need (does not mean need blind). For example, Choate meets 100% of demonstrated need for any student they admit. There are other schools with much smaller endowments that promise the same. Of course this means that admissions is need-aware, but if the student is accepted, they will get enough FA to cover demonstrated need.

As @momof3swimmers post illustrates, endowment lists may not be very useful for predicting FA.

15

I agree that endowment lists may not be very useful for predicting FA. My experience with FA has been similar to what @RedSoxFan18 noted.

16

@Publisher , you missed George School!

17

@gardenstate: Not that I think this is a very good good measure of anything except for financial stability of a school, but what is GS’s projected endowment after the Anderson gift is fully vested?

18

Tell us more, please, about the Anderson gift.

19

There are some posts that allude to great financial aid for domestic students at boarding schools accepting foreign nationals but fail to name the schools. It would be helpful to readers to share the names of the schools.

20

Apparently the Anderson gift to the George School started in 2007 & vests at $5 million per year for the first 15 years.
Ms. Anderson was a graduate of St. Lawrence University & then Columbia.

The George School has a large endowment of over $150 million (approx. $168 M) & gives aid to 50% of its students. Average aid package is slightly less than 50% of the cost of attendance.

George School is a boarding & day school in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a Quaker school.

George School’s endowment of $168 M would place it at number 20 among the boarding schools ranked by endowment in this thread.