Harvard’s Days as the World’s Richest School May Be Numbered
A sculler rows on the Charles River past the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
There’s one ranking in higher education where the top college never changes. With an endowment that currently totals around $37 billion, Harvard University has for decades firmly grasped the mantle of world’s richest school.
However, what was once insurmountable advantage is looking more vulnerable. Over the past decade, Harvard’s endowment—fed by donations and investment returns—has grown by less than 2 percent while rivals have made bigger strides. Third-place Stanford University’s fund rose by an impressive 44 percent in that time, to a record $24.8 billion as of midyear. Yale University, long the second-richest school in the world, was up 20 percent, to $27.2 billion, also a record.