List of colleges and universities in the United States by endowment

The tabulated data below are from NACUBO. Some universities benefit from endowments that are not under their direct control but which are nonetheless dedicated to the welfare of one or several institutions. Examples of these foundations include The Duke Endowment, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, and the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust. Taxes In 2017, a federal endowment tax was enacted in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 in the form of an excise tax of 1.4% on institutions that have at least 500 tuition-paying students and net assets of at least $500,000 per student. The $500,000 is not adjusted for inflation, so the threshold is effectively lowered over time. $244M in taxes was raised from 58 institutions in 2022. The endowment tax provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has been criticized as funding tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy at the expense of education. Critics note that the tax could threaten financial aid for low-income students, stifle social mobility, and obstruct life-saving research. Lobbyists representing wealthy private universities continue to advocate for its repeal. The Don't Tax Higher Education Act, which would repeal the endowment tax, was introduced in the 115th United States Congress, 116th United States Congress, and 117th United States Congress but failed in the Ways and Means Committee each time. The endowment tax was revised in the 2025 Big Beautiful Bill, resulting in higher taxes on the institutions with the greatest wealth per student: • 8% endowment tax: Princeton University, Yale University, MIT. • 4% endowment tax: Stanford University, Harvard University, University of Notre Dame, Dartmouth University, Rice University, Vanderbilt University, University of Richmond • 1.4% endowment tax: Emory University, Duke University, Washington University in St. Louis, Penn, Brown University == Endowments greater than $1 billion ==

Private schools Data are from NACUBO as reported in spring of 2026 but some institutions do not report. Public schools has the largest system-wide endowment of any American public higher education institution. For public universities, larger endowments are often associated with flagship state universities, especially those with medical schools. Sixteen states do not have institutions included in this list: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Many of these states have small populations. The New England states, however, are known for well-endowed private institutions. New York is one of the few populous states without a public university with a large endowment. Data are from NACUBO as reported in spring of 2026, but some institutions do not report. == Endowments per student greater than $1 million ==

has the largest endowment per student in the United States. Counterbalancing the effect of the large endowments per student for private institutions, average tuition and fees at private four-year institutions were approximately two to four times the average tuition and fees of four-year public institutions in academic year 2021–22. == See also ==