College Institutional Financials: Endowment, Faculty & Instructional Spend
Executive Summary (TL;DR)
Across 5,716 campuses with instructional or endowment fields, EDsmart Data finds a national median endowment of $26.4M (2,582 campuses reporting) and median endowment per FTE of $12,100. Median instructional expenditure per FTE is $7,288; median monthly faculty salary is $7,615. Harvard University reports the largest endowment in this extract ($50.75B).
U.S. medians for endowment and instruction
IPEDS Finance endowment balances (FY 2023) joined to College Scorecard instructional fields on school profiles. Medians use campuses with each field present—not a single identical sample for every metric.
Medians by public / nonprofit / for-profit
| Control | With endowment | Median endowment | Per FTE | Instr. $ / FTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public | 1294 | $14.1M | $5,032 | $8,424 |
| Private nonprofit | 1288 | $45M | $34,718 | $10,743 |
| Private for-profit | — | — | — | $4,332 |
Endowment per FTE by Scorecard region
New England and Mid East campuses typically hold higher endowment-per-FTE medians than other regions, reflecting concentrated private research wealth.
Regional medians
| Region | n (endow.) | Median endowment | Per FTE | Instr. $ / FTE | Faculty salary | FT faculty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Service Schools | 4 | $83.7M | $27,877 | $35,824 | $11,988 | 96.5% |
| New England | 185 | $42.9M | $23,268 | $10,182 | $9,262 | 53.3% |
| Mid East | 428 | $42.6M | $16,427 | $9,164 | $8,119 | 56.9% |
| Great Lakes | 383 | $31.8M | $16,690 | $7,690 | $8,046 | 58.1% |
| Plains | 292 | $24.1M | $15,020 | $8,150 | $7,194 | 64.7% |
| Southwest | 223 | $23.2M | $10,113 | $5,699 | $7,078 | 59.7% |
| Rocky Mountains | 79 | $19.5M | $10,274 | $6,852 | $7,458 | 73.3% |
| Southeast | 650 | $19.4M | $9,308 | $6,602 | $6,825 | 59.4% |
| Far West | 306 | $16.8M | $7,260 | $7,030 | $9,635 | 45.7% |
| Outlying Areas | 32 | $2.6M | $3,664 | $3,501 | $4,084 | 87.0% |
Highest median endowment by state
States with at least eight campuses reporting endowment balances, ranked by median end-of-year assets.
| State | Code | n | Median endowment | Per FTE | Instr. $ / FTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rhode Island | RI | 12 | $239.1M | $50,168 | $10,675 |
| District of Columbia | DC | 12 | $133M | $68,912 | $13,241 |
| Indiana | IN | 49 | $83.1M | $31,877 | $7,011 |
| Massachusetts | MA | 91 | $62.1M | $30,011 | $11,192 |
| Utah | UT | 12 | $57.7M | $5,500 | $6,230 |
| Connecticut | CT | 24 | $56.9M | $23,500 | $7,608 |
| Idaho | ID | 12 | $50.8M | $8,818 | $5,490 |
| Pennsylvania | PA | 137 | $47.9M | $24,897 | $8,615 |
| Maryland | MD | 44 | $44.9M | $13,247 | $10,120 |
| Kentucky | KY | 33 | $43.7M | $26,161 | $5,808 |
| Georgia | GA | 59 | $41.7M | $9,839 | $5,760 |
| Wisconsin | WI | 42 | $41.1M | $18,809 | $9,506 |
| Vermont | VT | 11 | $40.7M | $60,300 | $14,634 |
| New York | NY | 183 | $38.1M | $15,424 | $10,822 |
| Iowa | IA | 48 | $36.3M | $28,406 | $8,352 |
Largest reported endowments
| # | School | State | Control | Endowment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvard University | MA | Private nonprofit | $50.75B |
| 2 | Yale University | CT | Private nonprofit | $40.75B |
| 3 | Stanford University | CA | Private nonprofit | $36.49B |
| 4 | Princeton University | NJ | Private nonprofit | $33.38B |
| 5 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | MA | Private nonprofit | $23.45B |
| 6 | University of Pennsylvania | PA | Private nonprofit | $20.96B |
| 7 | Texas A&M University-College Station | TX | Public | $18.13B |
| 8 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | MI | Public | $17.63B |
Highest endowment per FTE
| # | School | State | Control | Per FTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago | IL | Private nonprofit | $12.8M |
| 2 | The Rockefeller University | NY | Private nonprofit | $6.1M |
| 3 | Princeton Theological Seminary | NJ | Private nonprofit | $4.1M |
| 4 | Princeton University | NJ | Private nonprofit | $3.8M |
| 5 | Soka University of America | CA | Private nonprofit | $3M |
| 6 | Phillips Theological Seminary | OK | Private nonprofit | $2.4M |
| 7 | Yale University | CT | Private nonprofit | $2.3M |
| 8 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | MA | Private nonprofit | $2M |
Methodology & limitations
- Endowment fields come from the IPEDS Finance extract (FY 2023) joined to school UNITIDs.
- Faculty salary, FT faculty share, and instructional expenditure per FTE come from College Scorecard fields on EDsmart school profiles.
- Geography uses Scorecard
region_idand state codes; medians require at least five campuses in a geography. - Not every campus reports every field—counts differ by metric.
- Faculty salary is Scorecard’s monthly average; do not annualize without checking the Scorecard data dictionary.
- School profile pages compare each campus to these same state, region, and U.S. medians.
FAQ
What does endowment assets measure?
End-of-year institutional endowment assets from IPEDS Finance (fiscal year 2023 in this extract), reported for campuses that file endowment balances.
Why show endowment per FTE?
Total endowment favors large research universities. Endowment per full-time-equivalent student scales wealth to campus size for fairer cross-school comparison.
Is average faculty salary annual or monthly?
College Scorecard publishes average faculty salary as a monthly figure. EDsmart Data displays it as monthly and compares medians on that same basis.
What is instructional expenditure per FTE?
Scorecard instructional spending divided by FTE enrollment—a proxy for instructional investment intensity, not total budget.