How Endowed Are You?
03.10
Yes, it’s the ugly e-word. Endowment.
College endowments represent the money given as a gift to the school.
What many people don’t realize is the endowment has EVERYTHING to do with financial aid for students, including college grant money. They are directly related.
For example, Harvard’s endowment is the largest of any school in the US, totaling a whooping $26 billion (as of September 2009, reported by The New York Times).
That’s huge figure and a lot of potential for financial aid, right?
Not really.
As reported in January 2009 by The New York Times, university endowments have dropped 23 percent on average – the worst endowment hit since the 1970s! And this includes the illustrious Harvard – who last year took a $10 billion cut in their endowment.
What to do?
Start by taking a look at these endowment numbers:
Yale: $16 billion
Stanford: $12 billion
Duke: $4.6 billion
Penn State: $1.6 billion
Rutgers: $654 million
Arizona State: $460 million
Do you notice a trend? Maybe that private institutions have larger endowments, thus an increased potential for more financial aid? We will be discussing this in future articles: schools that offer the best financial aid packages to UMC families.
In the meantime, what does the future hold for UMC students and college financial aid? We don’t have a crystal ball, but at White Picket College, we promise to keep you abreast of the endowment situation.
~ Please take a look at our Social Commentary article entitled: Endowment vs. Stalking.
© White Picket College, 2010 – College Funding for the Upper Middle Class
