Very impressive. Is this in-line with other comparable schools?
That sounds reasonable to me. Mercersberg ‘s is similar and claim it puts them in the top 10 per student.
Yes, endowment per student is an interesting measure! I was looking at the list which I copied below and there are many of the schools you would expect, but also an appearance by Woodberry Forest toward the top of the list.
MODERATOR NOTE: I removed the link, which was told was incorrect.
Not sure from where they gather their data, but I suspect it involves selective self-reporting, fairy dust and magical thinking. The link you shared is seriously incomplete.
A few obvious gaping holes make me wonder why anyone would consider that particular source reliable. Please share why you consider this to be a reliable source.
1 Like
Which of the numbers are wrong? I have known the owners of BSR for many years and write articles for them. They do research and collect data and while it isn’t always perfect, it is usually pretty good. I would have guessed that this data would be easy to find in an annual report, so therefore more likely to be correct. But if you are sure it is wrong I will take it down and also tell the owners that feedback on this is that the data isn’t correct.
Agreed. Noted that George is missing and would, on this list, be at about 14-15. Except that we don’t know because others may be missing as well.
1 Like
Deleted original - duplicate.
@Kristin_White, do you know if BSR has the schools provide info or do they source it themselves from public sources? It’s not to say that the public sources are correct, but if a school didn’t bother to update their info, it could cause discrepancies.
I realize that CC doesn’t allow editing of posts (as far as I can tell!), so I can’t take it down. But I will ask them to update it.
Exeter?
1 Like
Thank you. I appreciate your efforts to get better info to families and students. I think the issue is that the list is meaningfully incomplete. Updating one list won’t solve this on a bigger scale if the source has flawed methodologies. I think it might be more interesting to learn how they arrived at the list, and then assess their value as a source. If you are able to share that, I’d be keen to know.
1 Like
My experience on BSR is that it is consistently incomplete and inconsistently reliable. There are prominent schools that do not even have a profile on BSR, like Peddie.
2 Likes
Yes - the largest endowment - over $1.6 billion/ $1.6 million per student
The largest endowment, yes.
$1.6B, yes.
$1.6MM implies 1000 students, which is not right.
$1.45MM, more like.
Which is ridiculous.
I vaguely recall someone telling me Deerfield had the best ratio, but can’t recall.
Kristin, do you think that you can provide this data? Or is this beyond what’s covered in your book?
I agree with others that replicating bad data is doing a disservice to candidates and parents who would like access to accurate figures.
Semi-recent data for each school can usually be found in the school’s most recently filed IRS 990, specifically Schedule D, Part V, line 1g “End of year balance”.
Pro publica’s website is probably the best known free resource for looking up 990 filings.
Many schools will also disclose their financial aid expenditures in that filing as well. Use Ctrl+f to search.
ChatGPT seems to struggle to find and digest the 990 info, so I’d suggest researching this manually unless you have access to a more capable AI agent.
Once you have the end-of-year endowment balance, it’s pretty easy to divide that number by the total number of enrolled students at a given school. Don’t forget to include PGs in the student tally because they share in the benefits of the endowment.
One last note: a lot of schools use an academic fiscal year-end, so the 990 filings will be older than expected when you pull them up.
3 Likes
As a data nerd, I built a database containing boarding school data and share my endowment data set on 79 schools here.
Please be advised that the included schools strictly suited our purposes, so you may not find your school listed. In that case, calculate your own data, as noted above, using:
- school enrollment data (source: website “fast facts,” NCES, or state DOE)
- endowment data (source: IRS Form 990, Schedule D, Part V, Column (a), Row 1(g); ProPublica is the best compendium).
Another caveat: these data are as of my last pass and might be out of date by a year or so depending on when the IRS documents were filed and any changes to endowment size or student enrollment since. Expect maybe 5%-10% variations. Some schools may shift places. But the order of magnitude is certainly directionally correct.
The schools list is not complete, but it is comprehensive. It covers the major players, as well as some schools that you may not know possess large endowments. With reference to comments above – Hotchkiss, Culver, George, Woodberry Forest, and Mercersburg all make an appearance.
Obviously, at #1 and #2 both in size and per student, Hershey & Kamehameha serve a public purpose for huge student bodies and are therefore likely irrelevant to the average reader here. Though #3 in size and per student, Exeter is indeed #1 in both categories among the traditional New England boarding schools, with Groton, Deerfield, and SPS right behind it in the ~$1.3 million/student range.
Fascinating to see Woodberry Forest, Peddie, Church Farm, SAS, Thacher, Culver, and Emma sporting endowments per student in the ~$550K-$800K range, ahead of some “name brands”: three of the GLADCHEMMS schools and almost all of St. Grottlesex. It pays to have an open mind about schools’ financial resources.
@RandoParent Bravo for pointing out the IRS Form 990 hack and ProPublica’s massive effort to make this available. Also that ChatGPT doesn’t have a clue here. I thought these were my little insights.
@enewton I really like your endowment firepower minus FA heuristic as a proxy for the boarding school academic and social experience.
@cheerfulmom Appreciate your healthy skepticism here!
@Kristin_White I didn’t see your table, but BSR data is inaccurate in this regard. In fact, I rely on it only in the case of Portsmouth Abbey, because…the monks don’t file with the IRS.
@FixItDad I read Ms. White’s book. It’s informative, especially for newcomers to the boarding school environment, but this kind of analysis is beyond the scope of her work.
If you’re having problems with the link, here’s a screenshot of the top 22 schools before the page break:
9 Likes
Wow, I am so impressed with this data! Nice job Necaspera!
3 Likes
This is awesome! Virtual high-five from a fellow data nerd! Thanks so much!
2 Likes
@necaspera , Thanks for this!!
1 Like
The boarding school community has been very good to me and my family for many years, so it’s a pleasure to give something back in the service of others.
2 Likes