<p>It makes absolutely no sense to calculate endowment per capita. Much of the endowment is tied to a specific division within the university, and much of it is tied up for specific purposes, the assets of which may or may not become liquid in a given year. (Not to mention those purposes are often things the student will never experience, e.g. staff within a random unit, graduate-only programs, etc.) The universities vary by what % of their endowments they spend each year. Even then, the university may get sufficient revenue elsewhere (e.g. donations, outside grants, state funding) to spend less of the endowment, which makes it even more unclear. As someone mentioned, some hoard more than others as well (we all know Harvard could have all its undergrads go for free with plenty left over to cover the budget, and it would still have a rapidly growing endowment). If you wanted to see what kinds of resources they give students, you could look at budgets and see what portion ends up going toward students; this would make more sense especially because much of what is devoted to undergraduates often does not come from the endowment but from donors, or the state, etc. </p>
<p>Even with the current budget crisis in California, a given UC will have an “implicit endowment” much higher, if you assume that state funding represents 5% of an “imaginary” endowment (yes, it subsidizes tuition, so the school is getting less student income from the students themselves, but with the extensive financial aid policies these days, this doesn’t matter much). This goes for any public school that receives significant funding from the state. </p>
<p>But even looking at budgets would portray those undergoing student funding expansion more positively than those who already have gone through that expansion and have reached an equilibrium (e.g. don’t need to build more undergraduate housing).</p>
<p>On the whole, it really is completely pointless to calculate endowment-per-student this way.</p>