Harvard's financial endowment grew to $32.7 billion at the end of fiscal year 2013, up from $30.7 billion the previous year. (iStockphoto)

The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.

There's good news for colleges' coffers.

Financial endowments grew an average of 11.7 percent in the 2013 fiscal year, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Early data show that the 2014 fiscal year may have brought ​even greater gains, the group says.

In the 2013 fiscal year, the 1,165 ranked universities that reported endowment figures to U.S. News in aggregate had a gain of 7.6 percent in the size of their endowments. The average endowment among them was about $355 million at the close of the fiscal year ending June 30,​ 2013, up from about $330 million the previous year.

The average among the top 10 schools with the largest financial endowment was about $14 billion, also up from the previous year.

The three universities with the highest endowments are U.S. News' three highest-ranked National Universities, but in a slightly different order. Harvard University, ranked No. 2, has the largest endowment, nearly $32.7 billion. Yale, ranked No. 3, follows, with more than $20.7 billion in endowment dollars. Princeton, ranked No. 1, had nearly $18.8 ​billion at the end of fiscal year 2013.

Below is a list of the 10 universities that had the most money in their endowments at the end of fiscal year 2013. For the purposes of this list, endowments were examined by campus, not across public university systems. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.

School name (state) End of fiscal year 2013 endowment U.S. News rank and category
Harvard University (MA) $32,689,489,000 2, National Universities
Yale University (CT) $20,708,793,000 3, National Universities
Princeton University (NJ) $18,786,132,000 1, National Universities
Stanford University (CA) $18,688,868,000 4 (tie), National Universities
Massachusetts Institute of Technology $10,857,976,000 7, National Universities
University of Michigan—Ann Arbor $8,272,366,000 29, National Universities
Columbia University (NY) $8,197,880,000 4 (tie), National Universities
Texas A&M University—College Station $8,072,054,790 68 (tie), National Universities
University of Pennsylvania $7,741,396,000 8 (tie), National Universities
University of Notre Dame (IN) $6,959,051,000 16 (tie), National Universities

Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find data on college endowments, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.

U.S. News surveyed nearly 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2014 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools. The tuition and fees data above are correct as of Jan. 13, 2015.

Tags: education, students, colleges, college endowments

Susannah Snider Staff Writer

Susannah Snider is the Personal Finance editor at U.S. News. Since 2010, she has reported on a wide range of personal finance topics, from consumer travel to college financial aid, student loans and employment. Snider previously worked as a staff writer at Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California. She has appeared as a personal finance expert on television, radio and in print, including on "Fox & Friends," "The Tavis Smiley Show" and Fox Business News. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at ssnider@usnews.com.


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