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Series_G t1_jchi6tb wrote

A scatterplot would probably work better.

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MasterDio64 OP t1_jcgxnpa wrote

Sources

https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment

Tools

R

I made this so I could learn how to use R and it took me waaay longer than I thought it would to make this.

I actually expected there to be a higher correlation between endowment and acceptance rate, but I guess that's just not the case. That being said, the amount of cash these universities have is insane, but what the top 4 has is just beyond nuts...

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GottaVentAlt t1_jchn4t6 wrote

As a current graduate student at one of the top four, a couple things to consider are 1. Total investment per student, 2. Age of university, 3. Amount of research.

For undergrads at my school, basically no low income students have to take loans because the financial aid is very, very generous. When I was an undergrad here (grew up in poverty) I had a living stipend when I wasn't in the dorms. My university is also among the oldest in the country, and time for the endowment to grow and compound is relevant of course. And my university has a number of large and highly productive graduate schools associated with it, not sure if the student numbers are only undergrads or all students. They also have a bunch of community programs and stuff, for the city and whatnot, so there's a lot going on here. And I know for my university at least, we are pretty physically constrained in terms of literally housing undergraduates. Couldn't admit a ton more if they wanted to, and even then the last few classes have been record sizes.

I just wanted to point this all out because people often see numbers like this and freak out that certain universities have "too much" money. Even people at these universities, haha. But the thing is that the point of the massive endowments are that you aren't spending it. Returns on that endowment are what allow for the economically sustainable development of the campus and help fund the huge amounts of academic work that come out of these institutions. They're spending a lot each year. A bit different from the issue of stupidly wealthy individuals hoarding money to grow their net worth only.

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imaris_help t1_jch2fpy wrote

Hey OP, nice visual!! I wonder if it might look different if you used endowment per student vs admit rate? I’ve heard that portions of the endowment are restricted so that Yales endowment per student is actuallly larger than Harvards, etc.

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MasterDio64 OP t1_jch4pj6 wrote

Thanks for the suggestion! The database I used weirdly didn’t have any info on student body size, but once I track down a decently sized one I’ll try to make that chart.

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demonfish t1_jch4pil wrote

Non murican here. Could you explain what endowment means?

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FloatingByWater t1_jch5lgn wrote

Universities essentially have trust funds - it's the money that alumni and others have given over the years to the university. The university then invests that money to grow but also uses it to finance things like financial aid.

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jelhmb48 t1_jckcard wrote

Why do American alumni give so much money to the university they studied at? Especially considering the sky high tuition most paid already to that uni, it seems strange to me people willingly donate even more money to that institution. Is it a prestige thing?

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FloatingByWater t1_jckm0i8 wrote

I’m probably not the best to ask, as I’ve only donated small amounts to where I went to university. For me, it‘s mostly emotional, in that I have really good memories of both my undergrad and graduate universities. I’ve mostly chosen to do so when there’s a particular program/initiative that I care about raising funds.

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MasterDio64 OP t1_jch5zst wrote

Sure! It’s basically an estimate of all the assets that a university has. The key thing to note is that not all of these assets can be used the way these universities want because donors can place restrictions on how their cash is to be spent.

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amanasksaquestion t1_jci1vbm wrote

Half the ivies are investment companies with an adjunct faculty attached.

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phairphair t1_jcintn7 wrote

With these endowments the most selective universities could educate the highest potential kids, regardless of income, free of charge for centuries to come.

I know that donors often place usage restrictions on their endowments, but I still can't get my head around why these elite colleges don't use more of their tremendous resources to develop incoming talent.

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galspanic t1_jcilrn5 wrote

I’d love to see endowment per student somehow calculated into that. I went to a school on this list with 1200 students at the time, and the endowment tracks with some much bigger schools.

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Adsequalbads t1_jchrroj wrote

Princeton, Yale, and Harvard can all eat the biggest ducks possible. Fuck them!!!!!

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HopeDiligent6032 t1_jcind58 wrote

I'm surprised there is no peer review prior to submission here.

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_Broseidon t1_jcj6qqg wrote

Wow CalTech flexing on em with that Acceptance / Endowment ratio.

Who needs donors anyway?

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MasterDio64 OP t1_jcjcew7 wrote

I thought CalTech would have a much higher endowment because they run JPL but apparently not.

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BenjaminDrover t1_jchy3eu wrote

Why did you skip most of the public universities? The University of Texas has an endowment 2nd only to Harvard.

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bronco_y_espasmo t1_jci6ni7 wrote

Well, I AM learning something today.

How is that?

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Economy_Bite24 t1_jci9tea wrote

It’s for the whole UT system spanning multiple universities.

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BenjaminDrover t1_jcicj8a wrote

When Texas founded its 2 main universities in the early 19th century, huge tracts of nearly worthless land in West Texas were allocated to support the institutions. Guess where the largest oil deposits in America were found in the following years...

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