<p>Does having a large endowment means that the college is good? And what purpose does endowment serves since a college's endowment seems to be growing forever?</p>
<p>Harvard has the largest endowment in the world. Does that have any correlation with academics and social life? Not really.</p>
<p>yeah, but they are able to employ the best faculties in the world!</p>
<p>Most of Harvard's endowment is far, far away from actually being spent. I would posit that spending per student is a better measure of goodness (or waste).</p>
<p>I don't know about "good". However, the schools with largest per student endowments are tightly grouped at the top of the USNEWS rankings in both the university and liberal arts college rankings.</p>
<p>Why? Simply put, the schools with the largest per student endowments have more money to spend and are less dependent on tuition revenue to cover operating expenses. For example, Swarthmore is at or near the top ten universities and colleges in per student endowment with nearly $750,000 per student. In the 2003-04 academic year, they spent $68,000 per student in operating expenses (not including financial aid). Of that, $26,500 per student came from tution and other fees. $29,000 per student came from endowment earnings.</p>
<p>University finances are more difficult to sort through because all of the grad schools and research departments are mixed in with undergrad, but the same general trends apply.</p>
<p>In general, schools with large per student endowments can afford to have more diversity on campus (larger financial aid budgets) and have more money to spend on faculty, student research projects, and a ton of other things. Of course, the schools with the largest per student endowments are usually the hardest to get into. It's easy to understand why. When you spend an average of $68,000 per student and only charge an average of $26,500 per student, customers tend to line up around the block.</p>
<p>Of course, there are many fine schools that do not have large endowments. They just have to operate with more focus on maximizing revenues from student fees. Finding the right "fit" is always the most important thing.</p>
<p>make sure you dont confuse 'large endowment' with 'free stuff for students.' My school has a huge endowment, one of my friends who is an international student commented on how our endowment was more than twice the GNP of his country. Yet, i still get nickel and dimed for everything possible ... using too much internet, printing, playing pool in the lounge, $650/year for parking, season hockey tickets, this, that, blah blah blah. </p>
<p>But at least we get free professional massages almost daily in finals week :)</p>
<p>Gomestar, that's why you have to look at "per student endowment". Cornell has a nice solid endowment at approximately $200,000 per student, but it's not in the top-30 or so colleges and universities on that measure.</p>
<p>The chart on page 2 of this PDF is a little out of date and leaves off some schools with very large per student endowments (like Emory), but it gives a good idea of about 40 of the top private schools in per student endowment.</p>
<p>Note that none of this typically applies to public universities. For most of them, taxpayer subsidies takes the place of endowment spending.</p>
<p>IMO:</p>
<p>good school = good school</p>
<p>Best school any of my kids ever attended: a private school in Brooklyn.
Among the smallest endowments of any of the leading NYC private schools.
Shabby facilities. No sports fields. Little financial aid available.
But the level of education my kids experienced there was magnificent.</p>
<p>High endowment schools high in rankings- rankings CONSIDER endowment in formulation; self-fulfilling prophecy.</p>
<p>$$$ never a bad thing , but depends on how they use it: To benefit YOU or to benefit other people or activities you may not care about. So its either a positive or only mildly relevant.</p>
<p>To determine "good school", for you, I personally would focus more on the alleged results/ manifestations of the endowment expenditures, and only secondarily on the endowment itself. Are the departments you want considered strong, etc. You care more about what they choose to do with it then if they actually have it.</p>
<p>Can be relevant of course, for financial flexibility, but this to me is a second order consideration.</p>
<p>Large endowment plus largest campus = good school.</p>
<p>Look how often Berry College is mentioned on this board. </p>
<p>Large endowment = rich alumni. </p>
<p>In the top 50-100 schools, large endowments do not correlate with amount of financial aid given out, with diversity (in some places, there may be an inverse correlation), or (among LACs) with faculty salaries.</p>
<p>Endowment can help a school be good. But what really counts, is how the school is managed. Different schools attract students with different levels of seriousness. A poor school can do a good job of educating if it has dedicated faculty to design good programs that will challenge students. It all depends... I attended the Illinois Math and Science Academy for high school. It's free to admitted students, and the IL legislature is forever arguing over whether funding should be continued for the 600 residential students. Quality of life wasn't so great there, but the level of education we received was easily comparable to a top-20 college.</p>