<p>How come Georgetown (a school with over 10,000 undergrad and grad students, a med school, a business school, the school of foreign service, a law school, and a presence since 1789) has under 1 billion in endowment money? Seriously, do its fiercely loyal alums not donate? I'm really curious about this and was wondering how the lack of endowment money affects Gtown (financial aid, etc).</p>
<p>I’ll let Georgetown President Jack DeGioia explain (<a href=“http://www.thehoya.com/node/18344[/url]):”>http://www.thehoya.com/node/18344):</a></p>
<p>*…DeGioia explained that three particular issues - commitment to academic excellence, a response to the needs of the community, and the sustainability of continued growth - shaped the Board of Directors’ response to the current financial situation. </p>
<p>DeGioia said that Georgetown’s comparatively small endowment has forced it to take more aggressive action to curb the effects of the financial crisis. </p>
<p>“We don’t have the same economic advantages as our peers,” DeGioia said. “We are ranked in the top 25 universities in the country but our endowment ranks 73rd. We have to be more careful with our budget, but we begin with a focus on students, faculty and facilities.” </p>
<p>DeGioia said that Georgetown has a smaller endowment than its peers simply because the university did not start fundraising until 1969. Before 1969, Georgetown was linked to the Jesuit community completely, but in the past 30 years, the university has started looking for philanthropy to continue to grow. *</p>
<p>[Georgetown</a> University: Endowment Falls 25.5%; Rises in NACUBO Rankings](<a href=“http://explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=39772]Georgetown”>http://explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=39772)</p>
<p>Read the section under “Past Affects Present”.</p>
<p><em>edit</em> dzleprechaun got it. Also the article above talks about how the university changed a bit in the 1980’s.</p>
<p>If you look at things like professorial salaries, undergraduate financial aid, physical plant, etc. you would be very hard pressed to say that it has any effect at all.</p>
<p>As Ben Stein pointed out in a New York Times atticle a couple of years ago, a lot of the fund raising that goes on at a lot of elite colleges is only for the purpose of increasing the endowment to 1) look good in magazines and 2) reward administrators and portfolio managers with high pay. Money is basicly stored and not spent at a lot of places.</p>
<p>With 5% of the US senate, 11% of the Supreme Court, 6% of our governors, four current heads of state, etc. maybe Georgetown feels that they just don’t need a good size bank account to impress anybody.</p>
<p>in addition o all the above, many also argue that Georgetown sends a disproportionate amunt of grads into non-profits and the government sector. While many of these jobs are very rewarding, they are not always high paying.</p>
<p>One reason for Georgetown’s lack of endowment is that for the longest time Georgetown did not accept donations from alumni. The Jesuits that ran the school did not accept the donations. Or so I’m told. Their are other factors as well. Georgetown is working to improve this and we’re definitely improving.</p>
<p>A hypothesis-Maybe it just doesn’t matter what the endowment is when you look at a a school and what is more important is the actual operating budget from whatever sources-grants, donated salary(from Jesuits), tuition, spent contributions, endowment, sports surpluses etc. </p>
<p>Georgetown might be “poor” but it still pays its full Professors $140k (probably in the top 20 ) and is one of about thirty need-blind schools with its financial aid program. Somehow, Georgetown seems to succeed very well without an endowment. Maybe it truly doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>How is it the Boston College another similar sized Jesuit college has an an endowment of $1.83 Billion?</p>
<p>If BC’s endowment is so big they sure don’t appear to be using it. Their faculty salaries and financial aid program are way lower than Georgetown. But they do have a great hockey team. Maybe hockey is a very expensive sport.</p>
<p>^lmao. hockey.</p>