The University of Michigan saw a half a billion increase in its endowment over this past year, bringing it close to $12 billion at the close of 2019. The school is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Among people to come from this midwestern school’s alumni list are 25 Nobel Prize winners, pop queen Madonna and former U.S president, Gerald Ford. The university enjoys an annual budget of nearly $9 billion. They have a fairly large student body and staff, with over 40,000 students and a staff of over 20,000 to help manage everything.
University of Pennsylvania: $14.7 Billion
The University of Pennsylvania was first founded as a charity school in 1740. But thanks to the efforts of one of America’s founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, along with some other key players in Philadelphia, it was transformed into an academy in 1751. Franklin acted as president of the first board of trustees for the school.
The Wall Street Journal ranked the University of Pennsylvania as the 4th best overall university in the United States. There are reportedly over 60 billionaire alumni, 14 heads of state, 33 U.S Senators, 159 members of the House of Representatives, 3 supreme court justices. Not to mention, they boast 8 graduates who signed the Declaration of Independence and 12 who signed the U.S Constitution. This year, the school has reached an endowment of over $14.5 billion.
Texas A&M University: $13.53 Billion
As of late last year, Texas A&M University had an endowment of nearly $13.5 billion, making it one of the wealthiest universities in the world. Their main campus in College Station is one of the largest in the country. The school is a Senior Military College and one of six public universities in the U.S that has a volunteer Corps of Cadets. Texas A&M University consists of 10 colleges and 18 research facilities.
The school has a long list of notable alumni that includes heads of state, university presidents, astronauts, senators, brilliant engineers and more. There have also been nine Nobel laureates to graduate from Texas A&M. They have the largest student body in the state of Texas, and one of the largest in the entire country, boasting nearly 70,000 students this year alone.
Columbia University: $10.87 Billion
This private Ivy League school was founded in Manhattan in 1754. It is the single oldest higher-education facility in New York and the fifth in the country. The school is one of the top three in the country and known for being hard to get into, with an acceptance rate of just over 5%.
The institute, which has an endowment of around $10.87 billion, has an impressive list of alumni, both living and deceased. Among them are five of the nation’s Founding Fathers, as well as 53 billionaires and three former presidents.
Northwestern University: $11.8 Billion
Northwestern University is a private research school in Illinois. It was established in the early 1850s by John Evans. The city in which it is located, Evanston, is named after the founder. The school is home to a renowned Doctoral program, one that brings in nearly $800 million per year in research funds from sponsors.
The university has grown to accommodate over 20,000 students per year, divided across its three campuses. One of those campuses was just opened in 2008 in Doha, Qatar, which focuses on media and journalism programs. Northwestern’s endowment has grown substantially over the past year or so and is currently estimated at over $11 billion.