<p>^ agreed completely. Soon enough, schools like Stanford will start to offer free tuition. Right now, HYPSM are in a “cold war” of sorts in which all agree not to eliminate tuition (if one did, the others would very quickly follow). These huge endowents are certainly capable (right now) of supporting their students without tuition or at least without tuition increases. Unfortunately, it will likely take action from Congress to force them to use their endowments to lower tuition.</p>
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<p>As zenkoan pointed out, it’s not quite the same - that’s $2.37 billion in pledges and gifts. USC usually receives <$500m per year in gifts, about half of what Stanford usuall does. Among top schools, it’s not particularly difficult to get $1b+ in pledges/gifts in a single year, but it’s a big deal to raise such in just received gifts in a year. Also, USC’s total right now is a little misleading; the campaign left the quiet phase (the period before the official announcement of the campaign) relatively early, with about 15% of the goal raised (typically 30-50% is raised before the public announcement), and the beginning of a campaign always raises the most money. But Stanford raised $1b at the end of its campaign, which is also why it’s significant.</p>
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<p>texaspg, what exactly do you mean by this / where did you hear it?</p>