<p>Hi everyone, </p>
<p>Just a quick question: what exactly is meant by the financial endowment of a university? What's the difference between Harvard with 25 billion and Columbia with 6?</p>
<p>An endowment is money that has typically been donated to the university and the invested to gain capital. Typically this money is used to fund part of the operating budget of the university or other costs (such as giving money to students who need it for financial aid, etc.) The greater the endowment, the more money and therefore financial resources the university has.
As to the difference between Harvard and Columbia endowments, it just means that Harvard has more money to spend. In this case a lot more (Harvard has the largest endowment of any university).</p>
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