“America‘s public schooling system may be in trouble， but its top universities are anything but，” said a story by Stacker， which compared the multibillion endowments of 50 American colleges to the “total wealth” of world nations as estimated by Credit Suisse。
The list saw five universities – including Princeton， Stanford， Yale， and the University of Texas System – beat over half of world‘s 195 economies。 Topping the list with its massive $38.3 billion endowment came Harvard。
图 via Shutterstock图 via Shutterstock
50 Wellesley College
韦尔斯利学院
- Location： Wellesley， MA
位置：韦尔斯利，马萨诸塞州
- 2018 endowment： $2.1 billion （up 9% from 2017）
2018年捐赠基金：21亿美元（比2017年上涨9%）
- More wealth than： 26 countries
财富超过26个国家
- Wealth equal to： Maldives （$2.1B） with $6 million leftover
财富相当于：比马尔代夫（21亿美元）还要多600万美元
Stacker的报道称，大学捐赠基金的运作方式类似于免税对冲基金。
Private institutions often use nonprofit status to avoid tax， but a provision of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will levy a small tax on schools with funds totaling more than $500，000 per student。 Harvard has 36，012 students， with an endowment per student average of more than $1 million。
▲Harvard is wealthier than more than HALF of the world’s countries （via Campus Reform）
图 via AP图 via AP
对于如何使用这笔数额巨大的捐款，哈佛大学没有向“校园改革”网站作出回应。
不过，拥有14个分支机构的德克萨斯大学体系，强调他们对捐赠资金的使用方式是有限制的。
Karen Adler， the director of media relations for the UT system， defended the university’s systems massive endowment， making sure to highlight that there are restrictions on the ways in which their endowment can be spent。
“The UT System endowment is made up of several different endowments and they all have different restrictions on how they can be spent，” Adler said in a short comment。 “The Texas Constitution stipulates how money from the Permanent University Fund – which constitutes a large portion of the UT System endowment – can be spent。”
Adler pointed out that large private donations are responsible for a large portion of the massive endowment。 “Philanthropic gifts make up another significant portion of the endowment。 Donors specify how the money is to be spent （scholarships， professorships， research， etc。）， and the university is responsible for honoring donor intent。 In general， most gifts are restricted，” Adler added。
