<p>It’s unclear to me why Harvard, et al. would be “worried” about another school rising to their universal caliber of scholarship. Not enough brains to go around? That’s not really the case, as we know; if there is money enough to lavishly fund 10 English departments, then they will all be home to their share of luminaries (just look at Berkeley, Harvard, Penn, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, etc.).</p>
<p>In the most lucrative (and accordingly, the most expensive) fields, Penn already contends with the top universities: medicine, business, bio-medical engineering. Presumably in more “boutique”-type fields such as philosophy, Penn can quickly make great strides (it would only take 2 or 3 strategic hires to accomplish this). This is even true of larger departments, where Penn is already strong but could use a little extra star power; physics (currently ranked 13th), math, bio and chem.</p>
<p>As for the endowment argument: it’s less relevant than you imagine. As of the financial year’s first quarter, Penn is up 13% to $5.8 billion, slightly more than Columbia and 5th biggest in the country. Following the capital campaign, $1.75 billion of which enters the endowment, it should equal MIT, effectively entering the HYPMS zone. At that point, Penn’s faculty will be on sufficiently equivalent financial footing - it will come down to a question of undergraduate selectivity.</p>