>This is a STEM-oriented view. In a lot of fields the primary cost of research is faculty time, and it is often paid by tuition. While I don't doubt there are

>This is a STEM-oriented view. In a lot of fields the primary cost of research is faculty time, and it is often paid by tuition. While I don't doubt there are colleges out there that primarily function of tuition, I'm fairly confident that the schools that the GP was talking about which take in millions of donations, are not funded by tuition - STEM or not. Endowments are practically tax-free hedgefunds. There are several liberal arts colleges in boston with billion+ endowments - where the return alone on the endowment rivals the total revenue from students (assuming they were all paying the full 50k, which they likely aren't).