This private Ivy League university, located in upstate New York, was established in 1865 by Ezra Cornell, a philanthropist and businessman who wanted to provide a wide range of educational options. The campus is a beautifully scenic 745 acres, but it’s much larger if you count the Cornell Botanic Gardens (which spread out over more than 4,000 acres.)
Today, the university is comprised of seven graduate and seven undergraduate divisions, sprawled out over its Ithaca campus. They also have two medical campuses, one in NYC and one in Education City, Qatar. Nearly 60 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with Cornell, along with 55 Olympic medalists and 14 (living) billionaires. Ruth Bader Ginsburg attended Cornell, as did Bill Nye, The Science Guy. They have an endowment of just over $7.2 billion.
Washington University: $7.5 Billion
Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, was established in 1853, and named after the first president of the United States. The school has grown to include seven schools, including the School of Medicine, which is ranked by U.S News & World Report as the 8th best in the country. In 1976, the school added “in St. Louis,” to their name to curb confusion about where the university was located.
The U.S News & World Report also ranked Washington University in St. Louis as the 19th best undergraduate program in the country for 2020, and 11th by The Wall Street Journal for the same category. The school’s endowment this year was just over $7.5 billion, which lends to all of their amazing programs, including all of the research at the McKelvey School of Engineering. The school has more than 150 National Institute of Health inventions to its name and has played a huge role in the Human Genome Project as well.
Emory University: $7.5 Billion
This private research university in Atlanta was founded as Emory College in the 1830s by the Methodist Church. Now, they are divided into nine schools, including Oxford College, Goizueta Business School, the School of Law, School of Medicine and the Candler School of Theology. They have over 15,000 students per year, who come from all over the world to attend.
Emory University Hospital is world-renowned, and its healthcare system is the largest in Georgia. They have seven major hospitals throughout the state, which include their main branch, a Midtown location, and the Winship Cancer Institute. They have the 17th largest endowment in the nation, at nearly $7.3 billion. Emory University is currently ranked 21st in the nation and 73rd in the world on the U.S News & World Report.
Rice University: $6.2 Billion
Rice University is a private research school in Houston, Texas. They turn out an impressive level of research and receive over $140 million annually for research expenses. Rice has a fairly small student body, compared to a lot of others on this list, with just over 7,000 in attendance last year.
Rice has close ties to NASA and subsequently has produced a high number of successful astronauts and space scientists. Two Rice alumni have received Nobel Prizes, and a number of them have become the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
University Of Southern California: $5.5 Billion
The University of Southern California was established in the 1860s and has evolved into one of the best private universities in the country. They have an annual budget of over $5 billion and an endowment of $5.5 billion. USC is known for several major technological inventions, including the Domain Name System, antivirus software and DNA computing, among others.
Multiple Nobel Prize winners have emerged from the university, along with major actors who played in 25 of the highest-grossing films in history. Some of the famous alumni to graduate from USC include Neil Armstrong, Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow, and Forest Whitaker. There have also been more than 130 Olympic medal winners affiliated with the school.