<p>Eddi137,</p>
<p>MIT is not a good comparator for UChicago - MIT is primarily a technical institute. It doesn’t have a law school, medical school, associated hospital system, broad liberal arts curriculum, etc. </p>
<p>So, when you ask how much is good enough, the answer is, no single amount is good enough. Schools always want more. A better question is, amongst similarly situated peers (e.g. broad research universities), what’s a good target?</p>
<p>The current climate indicates that anything from $4.5-6B is probably in the right ballpark. That’s what Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, etc. are doing. In terms of past practice, though, UChicago’s actual fundraising clout is probably closer to Vanderbilt or Emory than it is to Harvard and Stanford. This makes keeping the educational mission of the school (excellence as a research university) difficult. Add in the highly leveraged current status of the school, and it’s a problematic situation. </p>