<p>Yeah, you obviously can’t cherry pick certain 2011 values while using 2010 values for other universities - all of them should have had a decent year in the past, so you have to do an apples-to-apples comparison as an endpoint. The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) seems to be the best source to do so. Looking at that link, though, gives slightly different numbers than the ones you got Alexandre. Unless I’m missing something. I’m seeing this:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard University ($27.6 billion)</li>
<li>Yale University ($16.6 billion)</li>
<li>Princeton University ($14.4 billion)</li>
<li>Stanford University ($13.8 billion)</li>
<li>Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($8.3 billion)</li>
<li>Columbia University ($6.5 billion)</li>
<li>University of Michigan - AA (assuming AA is 97% of system endowment = $6.4 billion)</li>
<li>Northwestern University ($5.9 billion)</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania ($5.7 billion)</li>
<li>Texas A&M? ($5.7 billion system wide; not sure % just for A&M)</li>
<li>University of Texas-Austin ($5.6 billion using your 40% figure)</li>
<li>University of Chicago ($5.6 billion)</li>
<li>University of Notre Dame ($5.2 billion)</li>
<li>Duke University ($4.8 billion)</li>
</ol>
<p>Not that it’s that significant of a difference. By the way, Duke’s endowment is NOT $6.0 billion in 2011 either. That is the figure for Duke’s long-term pool of investments. It’s not the same thing. It includes the endowment, plus pension funds, funding for certain campus organizations like the student newspaper, medical center reserves, etc. It would be nice if they had made that split for us, but they didn’t. Duke’s endowment at the beginning of 2011 is still shy of $6.0 billion, but hasn’t been released.</p>