Do you guys think that after a certain point these stop to matter? Maybe 5bn, 10bn, 15bn, I don’t know. If Harvard has 30bn and another school has 10bn, what does that extra 20bn buy? You can only have so many buildings and hire so many proffesors. Interesting thought.
It’s one indication of true need blind scholarship opportunities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment
http://www.reachhighscholars.org/college_endowments.html
I would say that any of the schools on the first list are quite rich and would provide a great education, good facilities, etc. The key measure to look at it endowment per student (the second list; however, it does not have as representative of a list of colleges as I would like it to); in general, the higher this figure, the better the experience the average student will have at a college. However, keep in mind that research institutions tend to have higher endowments; this does not mean that liberal arts colleges are any less worthwhile to attend.
A student needs to look at his/her priorities before deciding which colleges to apply to. Someone who wants to attend a research insitution would be better serves at looking at endowment figures than one that wants a liberal arts college epxerience. Of course, there a small number of schools that may serve as a crossroads between the two types of schools (e.g., Rice, Notre Dame, Emory, etc.).