The Harvard University has topped the list of Forbes richest American schools.
It has the largest financial endowment in the world with $32.3 billion as of June 2013. In the 2011-12 academic year, both Harvard and Yale together received over $1.262 billion in federal support. As a result, the University's large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages to needy students. .
The Ivy League school is followed by the Yale University. The University's assets include an endowment estimated at $20.8 billion as of 2013, the second-largest financial endowment in the world.
The endowment value grew from $19.3 billion on June 30, 2012, to $20.8 billion on June 30, 2013. For Yale's 2014 fiscal year, spending from the endowment is planned at $1.05 billion.
The University of Texas System is at No. 3 on the list with $20.5 billion in endowments. The UT board comprises of four major endowment fund groups - the Permanent University Fund (PUF), Permanent Health Fund (PHF), Long Term Fund (LTF) and Separately Invested Funds (SIFs).
According to a 2011 endowment study, by the National Association of College and University Business Owners, the University of Texas System had the largest endowment for a public school in the country and the third-largest overall.
Behind Texas is the Stanford University. Stanford is considered as the top fundraising university in the United States. It raised $911 million in 2006, $832 million in 2007, $785 million in 2008, $640 million in 2009, $599 million in 2010, $709 million in 2011 and $1.035 billion in 2012, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.
"Stanford has been doing a remarkable job," said Ann E. Kaplan, the director of the Council for Aid to Education's report. "By any standard, it's been amazing. They have some very big ideas, and they're good at capturing people's imagination, thinking about what they can do and what they could be," The New York Times reports.
Top 10 Richest Schools in America
Harvard University, $32,334,293,000
Yale University, $20,780,000,000
University of Texas System, $20,448,313,000
Stanford University, $18,688,868,000
Princeton University, $18,200,433,000
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, $11,005,932,000
Texas A&M University System and Foundations, $8,732,010,000
University of Michigan, $8,382,311,000
Columbia University, $8,197,880,000
Northwestern University, $7,883,323,000
