<p>With respect to Princeton and Yale, comparing Chicago to schools with endowments north of 20B is not apples-to-apples by any means. </p>
<p>Also, undergraduates are on average a losing proposition for the school. UChicago is a net beneficiary from MBA / JD / MD students, but not UG’s. Even if everyone paid sticker, it would still likely be a lost cause. I know Harvard spends roughly 70K per UG per year, and while UChicago is not as lavish in terms of bells and whistles on campus, I would wager its own fully loaded costs are not far below.</p>
<p>Finally, you get to a 6B dollar endowment through major donations and aggressive investing, not tuition. Note that large, private schools like NYU, BC, USC, etc. - which charge more effective tuition per head - have paltry endowments given their size.</p>