Princeton's Endowment Growth Continues

PtonGrad2000
Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:34:38 +0000

[Now on steadier financial footing, Princeton University plans $250M in new capital projects | NJ.com](Now on steadier financial footing, Princeton University plans $250M in new capital projects - nj.com)

[Princeton Borrowing as Capital Spending Recovers: Muni Credit](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/06/14/bloomberg1376-LMSPQI0UQVI901-255OR2JU9S8CRUMHAOGTER4D1S.DTL)

Two years ago the news was bleak.

A major collapse in the stock market had sent Princeton’s endowment reeling, dropping a bit over 23%. The drop was not as great as at some of Princeton’s peers but it was serious nonetheless. Capital spending and operating expenses were both cut.

The following year, the news was remarkably good. At the end of June 2010 the endowment had increased from $12.6 billion to $14.4 billion a growth of 14.3%.

The news this year may be equally good.

Early hints as shown in the above articles suggest that Princeton’s endowment may end this fiscal year in a couple of weeks having almost completely recovered from its drop two years ago and possibly reaching close to its previous peak of $16.7 billion.

We won’t know the actual numbers until next fall but there is reason to be optimistic.

Last year, Princeton showed the highest rate of growth among the major university endowments and the second highest rate of investment return (after Columbia). Here are last year’s numbers. It will be interesting to see this year’s when they are released in October.

2010 Endowment Growth

14.3%-----Princeton
14.0%-----Columbia

9.6%-------Penn
9.5%-------Stanford
9.1%-------Cornell
9.0%-------Brown

6.1%-------Dartmouth

5.4%-------Harvard
5.1%-------MIT

2.5%-------Yale

2010 Investment
Rate of Return

17.3%-----Columbia
14.7%-----Princeton
14.4%-----Stanford
12.6%-----Cornell, Penn
11.0%-----Harvard
10.0%-----Brown, Dartmouth, MIT
8.9%------Yale