Do Endowments Have an Impact on a College’s Ranking?

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I totally agree. I haven't seen a school with huge endowment ranked at the bottom of the list yet. In general, rich schools rank on top of the list.

jk of MI 10:58AM May 27, 2010

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Yang of NY 10:49AM May 20, 2010

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Buy Ambien of AL 8:33AM April 05, 2010

They may not play a DIRECT role in the rankings (i.e., they are not a weighted factor), but you are only telling half the story. Schools with large endowments have the ability to offer larger scholarships to induce higher caliber students to matriculate, raising standardized test scores, GPAs and all other related factors (which are weighted), offer application waivers (which drive up applications and drive down acceptance rates), higher more faculty per student (this driving down faculty-student ratios) and influence the financial resources ranking. Morse -- you should retract this or clarify it -- what a joke. How do you think WUSTL (the original USNEWS rankings poster child) got itself ranked so highly?

Paul Pierce of AK 2:16PM February 24, 2010

If endowments had no correlation with rankings, that would be a flaw in the rankings. Why? Because endowments affect a school's ability to educate its students.

Greg of TN 8:42PM February 10, 2010

When I toured colleges with my son, I kept Petersons Guide by my side to look up the most important criteria imho the college's endowment.

xena of PA 1:52PM February 03, 2010

it's a little disingenuous to suggest endowments have no effect at all on a college's USN&WR rank. Institutional expenditures (which can include everything from auxiliary enterprises like the cafeteria and book store to academic basics like, the library) are certainly one big ingredient used to determine a school's overall score.

johnwesley of NY 10:43AM February 03, 2010

It would be easier and somewhat more object to ignore rankings and focus on endowment.

larrybruce of CO 5:36PM January 30, 2010

Even if they aren't part of the "formula", it's probably one of the best predictors there is.

J of MN 5:29PM January 30, 2010

Endowments are factored in in the following sense: schools with high alum contribution rates are more highly rated; higher contribution rates MAY (depending on gift size and alum base) map into higher endowments. By inverting endowment size into rate, and rate into ranking, it can be said that endowments that are larger "cause" higher rankings. Well, in fact, they are evidence of or should be correlated with higher rankings.
Further indirect evidence: higher endowments equal wealthy alums, if one could control for (eliminate) inheritance, one could argue that a higher endowment is indicative of higher quality graduates.

rwill of NY 7:47PM January 29, 2010