<p>So I thought. And as we all know, the skill of the manager is but one piece of the puzzle here, so they probably all fell (and have risen?) in tandem.</p>
<p>Numbers aside, does SPS (or Andover or any other school) display a more aggressive attitude when it comes to pressing on with noble (at down times, seemingly downright lunatic) initiatives? Exeter’s severe (though provisional) FA cutback in 2009 is well-documented on this Forum. Taking that kind of negative “action” sends a strong message when coming from a leader in secondary education. Likewise, when SPS broke ground on the Lindsay Center amidst other schools’ cries about the recession. That positive message also packed a wallop.</p>
<p>Incidentally, how lovely and colorful font choices (and sizes!). Though it seemed more carrot than orange on my screen. While I know numbers will receive everyone’s further scrutiny (easier to pin down), please keep my qualitative inquiry<a href=“tough%20and%20more%20subjective”>/U</a> in mind. To see if I am comparing apples, oranges (carrots?) or if the top schools are really more similar than it seems. For that, qualitative, somewhat personal judgments are in order.</p>
Andover kept its need-blind admission policy, which had started just a couple of years ago. IMO, nothing “comes for free” though. Facing the same financial market meltdown and uncertain future as other schools, they must’ve had to tighten up in other areas to make the need-blind initiative in place. Was it the best strategy or move? I think different people may have different takes on that, but it just shows these schools are not run by the same board of trustees. And that’s the advantage of having a large enough endowment (and I agree with you on that all the top schools are very strong financially) so they can keep their priorities even in bad times (for a while at least).</p>
<p>Schools run capital campaigns to meet such identified needs. One’s endowment should not be used to build new buildings–increasing the costs to run an institution, while decreasing the available income is not a good formula. Think of Harvard’s recent troubles. </p>
<p>There are endowments, and then there are the resources of the schools’ good friends. Building new facilities at this time sends a signal of financial strength among a school’s backers.</p>
<p>I’m a frugal person by nature, so Exeter’s public retreat on the FA front made sense. I’d guess that the school could have either 1) held to the pre-crash program, or 2) adjusted its program in the wake of the crash. Option no. 1 would have (at a guess) entailed spending the funds earmarked for the new program, until the program ran out of money. Option no. 2 involved great difficulties, but would allow the endowed funds time to grow–preserving them as a perpetual fund. </p>
<p>If Phillips Andover has an endowment of $700 million, 3.5% return on it would give it an income of $24.5 million. The significant FA commitment takes a large portion of that income. Incidentally, PEA and PA seem to give out comparable levels of financial aid, both in the number of students and in each school’s overall yearly commitment. </p>
<p>Valuations are a different question. How much is an investment worth, if you have to wait a year to retrieve it? Again, Harvard presents an extreme case.</p>
<p>P43531 and anyone that cares (please say no one).:
I suspect (and have seen performance numbers for some schools) that the majority are in a well clustered group. Cambridge Associates may have the best database. As I am typing, I am looking at a scatter diagram of Risk/Return for a universe of 22 schools. This one happens to be for schools with endowments between $200-$600 million over a five year period ended 9/30 based on quarterly return numbers. All 22 have risk profiles of less than the S&P 500. However for this period, only 2 outperformed a relevant Bond Index. The Mean return was 4.1% compounded (Median 4.3%). Broadening the sphere to all 401 schools they track (including ones outside of the earlier endowment parameters) , mean compounded annual return was 4.2% and the median was unchanged at 4.3%.</p>
<p>The best performer was about 6.3%. About a quarter were below 2.5%. SPS did quite quite well, with statistically less risk, but again the clustering is pretty tight between 4.5-5.5%. I would say the manager matters. But yeah… everyone went up, then down, then up again. </p>
<p>I cannot address other schools “Nobel Initiatives”, however I do tip my hat to Andover’s need blind admissions. In the case of the new Lindsey Math/Science center at SPS, I can say it was approached quite conservatively. Ground was not broken until 100% of the fundraising was completed. In fact the total included an endowment for 100% of the operating costs and 100% of the furniture, fixtures, landscaping and all other determinable costs. But then, they had not had a capital campaign since the 1970’s and desperately needed this facility. The objective was simple. They needed it. They built it. </p>
<p>Now for the most important part of your posting p43451, colors. I am limited by the HTML palette. I used orange for orange. It seemed logical to me. Clearly Carrot does not work (see below). I suspect I could have used Tangerine, but then several people might have pointed out that I was confusing my oranges with tangerines. Horrors! Some computer gnome made this stuff up, but here are some of the possibilities:
** orange
Tomato
tangerine
DarkOrange
Carrot **
It’s up to you but orange worked for me, but is any of this (returns or colors) important? Decide on a school based on fit not ROI’s.</p>
<p>Hey I agree that carrot is not orange, but p43531 thought my oranges in my earlier post looked more like carrots. So I wanted him to see what “carrot” looks like according to HTML gnomes. Think I need to sign off here for a week and let you folks sort this stuff out. PM me if it is important. Later…</p>
I think the trustees of Exeter might’ve had a pariticularly pessimistic view on the prospect of the financial market, so they reacted quite aggressively on cutting back on FA for the 2009 admission season (down from 50%+ the prior year to 20% ish). It was a natural and understandable reaction, but if you ask the families who applied for FA from Exeter in 2009 (and those WL’ed or denied “A1s” if they knew they were), they might feel differently. So, at the end of the day, it is the philosphy and priorities of the board that make a difference in the direction of the school policies, and for any policy/initiative there’s always yaysayers and naysayers.</p>
<p>So if the school fits, choose it? In all this information deluge, I am having a fit! Seriously though, the numbers and risk profiles were much appreciated, these schools are all solid. And the gargantuan SPS thread makes “fitting” a much easier process than does the Andover shop.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, as for your “colors”: this may be subliminal, but your color carrot above looks suspiciously like the color Andover does on my palette. Is this the new St. Paul’s dissuasion technique, coloring my judgment with blue? It won’t work after I watched that 45-minute splendid reminiscence by St. Paul’s alumni you posted a few hours ago!</p>
<p>In the interests of full and fair disclosure… The video
[ <a href=“https://www.sps.edu/podium/default.a...a=86468&play=1[/url]”>https://www.sps.edu/podium/default.a...a=86468&play=1</a> ] was for the kick-off of the Capital Campaign down in NYC ($100+ of $175mm already raised). It was pretty slick. Filmed on campus last spring and the rest was for the fundraiser. But it is also philosophically what SPS is all about. From the self-sacrifice of the Pelican logo, to the school prayer, to the video, to life on campus. And no I have nothing against Andover (two nephews are current students, <a href=“Poor%20fools”>size=-4</a> :)[/size]). They are flourishing there. Brother went to Exeter<a href=“Poor%20fool%20:”>size=-4</a>)[/size]. I have zero regrets about SPS, and my son and all his friends feel the same. It is a major part of who they are. They loved it and always will.</p>
<p>Winterset, I’ve gathered you are a parent. Are you also working for the admissions of SPS? I just checked a few of many of your posts. You seem to know a lot about the school “regular” parents might not have “systemetic knowledge” of. And the way you love your school is wow. Good work. Keep it up! :)</p>
<p>No I do not work for the school. On CC I sometimes feel that way but I simply know a lot and keep in touch so I hear a lot. I am an alum and have had a couple of nephews there. I was a parent.</p>
<p>A large endowment, by itself, does not guarantee a good school. Conserve School had an endowment of more than $1 million per student when the trustees decided to convert to a semester school.</p>
<p>^^Exactly! It just goes to show what a critical role the board of trustees plays in the industry and potentially what “good and bad” things they can do with the school’s endowment.</p>
<p>DAndrew, I will second that. After all, frugal Periwinkle could probably do much better with a thousand dollars than a spendthrift could. Which is why leadership I find so important, making the best use of the money available.</p>
of your posting p43451, colors. I am limited by the HTML palette. I used orange for orange. It seemed logical to me. Clearly Carrot does not work (see below). I suspect I could have used Tangerine, but then several people might have pointed out that I was confusing my oranges with tangerines. Horrors! Some computer gnome made this stuff up, but here are some of the possibilities: