<p>We have a member of the family that did attend Brown, but I was very surprised how dire it was for Brown with Brown’s drop in endowment to only $2 billion, then another google item said Brown had $600 million in debt, and then recently Brown did a $100 million bond offering…to have cash on hand to pay the bills.</p>
<p>I do not believe that Brown University’s poor financial situation is unique, but they do seem to be worse off than other top schools.</p>
<p>fine with me as long as we don’t go bankrupt in the following 2 years.</p>
<p>We are better off than Harvard, Yale, and Princeton ironically enough. Lower endowment has lead to Brown relying less on our endowment “gains” to fund the budget than HYP schools which saw massive increases in their endowments. As a result of their gains, they funded larger and larger portions of the annual budget with the endowment. Brown will be fine. It’s a massive hit certainly but Harvard’s economic situation seems worse to be honest.</p>
<p>We’ve borrowed far less than our peers (see HYP), have not had to do the same kinds of layoffs Harvard and Stanford has, depend far less on the endowment for our yearly budget than many other schools, etc.</p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly, look at how the endowment changed over time. Our endowment is essentially the same value it was 5-years ago, and our giving rates have been quite strong even in the down economy.</p>
<p>We’re gonna be just fine, even if the next couple of years will see a few less dramatic expansion projects than it may have. We’re at worst at an equal position with peers, but in many ways in a better position, actually.</p>