University endowments support a school's operating budget and help it invest in its future, from providing scholarships and financial aid to funding research and other initiatives. The richest colleges, frequently the most prestigious, can offer more of these opportunities to their students and community, giving them a leg up in recruitment and helping them burnish their academic reputation.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a US government organization that collects and analyzes education data, provided Business Insider with the most recent figures on US college endowments (the fiscal year ending in October 2014). It also provided its most recent data on the annual cost for a student to attend each college while living on campus.
Harvard University isn't just one of the top schools in the country academically, it also has the largest endowment of any American college with $36 billion — that's $13 billion more than the second-richest school, Yale University.
The following 30 colleges all have endowments of more than $2.9 billion, making them the richest in America.
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30. University of Washington
Location: Seattle, Washington
Endowment: $2.92 billion
Tuition: $26,698 (in-state); $47,817 (out-of-state)
Founded in 1861, UW is made up of three campuses: Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell — Seattle is the university’s main campus and boasts the largest endowment. UW's alumni include 136 Fulbright Scholars, 35 Rhodes Scholars, seven Marshall Scholars, and four Gates Cambridge Scholars. Preserving the environment is a priority for the school — it launched the UW Sustainability program in 2008 to promote projects that promote resource conservation and behavior change.
29. University of Minnesota at Twin Cities
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Endowment: $2.99 billion
Tuition: $25,674 (in-state); $32,924 (out-of-state)
The more than 30,000 students who attend the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities learn from accomplished professors who have won Nobel Prizes, Pulitzer Prizes, and MacArthur Fellowships, among other awards. UMN graduates go on to impressive feats as well: Alumni have started over 10,000 companies, generating a combined $100 billion in revenue.
28. Brown University
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Endowment: $3 billion
Tuition: $62,694
Brown is a leading research university with a 9% acceptance rate, though it has the lowest endowment of the eight Ivy League schools. The college offers a wide variety of undergraduate study in more than 40 academic departments as well as 51 doctoral programs and 28 master’s programs. Former Apple and Pepsi CEO John Sculley, actress Emma Watson, and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen are among Brown's most successful alumni.
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