3 ms·

$150M * 5% per year = $7.5M 200 students * $32,800 per year = $6.56M If it costs $150 million to cover the tuition for 200 students, surely the interest from

$150M * 5% per year = $7.5M 200 students * $32,800 per year = $6.56M If it costs $150 million to cover the tuition for 200 students, surely the interest from Yale's massive endowment could cover tuition for a much greater number of students?

rvn1045 5y ago
Ivy League schools already have pretty generous financial aid policies. Most students are not paying full tuition.
Alex3917 5y ago
Yale's endowment (presumably) already covers the tuition of every student, just not the full tuition. At most private universities, student tuition only covers something like a third the cost of attending.
colinmhayes 5y ago
Yale has 12000 students, 7000 are grad students, many of which have tuition waiver. Even if every one of these 12000 paid $40,000 tuition receipts would only be half a billion which is a third of what their endowment makes a year. I'd be very surprised if the actual tuition receipts are even a third of that with all the scholarships and phd waivers they give out. Still, why throw away 100+ million a year if you don't have to?
- dopamean 5y ago
  "throw away"
tiahura 5y ago
The real takeaway is how underfunded higher Ed is. I’m no Marxist but my intuition is that the the total payoff of a system where every high school graduate who maintains halfway decent grades can attend State U Springfield, tuition and room and board covered, would exceed the costs?
- CrazyPyroLinux 5y ago
  Wait, you think Yale is underfunded...?
  - jagger27 5y ago
    I would restate it as “how underfunded the rest of higher Ed is.”
jasode 5y ago
>, surely the interest from Yale's massive endowment could cover tuition for a much greater number of students? A lot of endowments (most?) are earmarked for a specific purpose because that was the condition for receiving the charity money from the donator. And funding general tuition often doesn't meet the conditions. (Several articles explain this: https://www.google.com/search?q=ivy+league+endowments+earmarked https://www.google.com/search?q=ivy+league+endowments+earmar...) And the alternative of donating "unrestricted" sometimes doesn't have the desired outcome the public wants to see. (E.g. spending on football scoreboard instead of financial aid for students. Previous comment about that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26377357 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26377357 )

rvn1045 5y ago

Ivy League schools already have pretty generous financial aid policies. Most students are not paying full tuition.

Alex3917 5y ago

Yale's endowment (presumably) already covers the tuition of every student, just not the full tuition. At most private universities, student tuition only covers something like a third the cost of attending.

colinmhayes 5y ago

Yale has 12000 students, 7000 are grad students, many of which have tuition waiver. Even if every one of these 12000 paid $40,000 tuition receipts would only be half a billion which is a third of what their endowment makes a year. I'd be very surprised if the actual tuition receipts are even a third of that with all the scholarships and phd waivers they give out. Still, why throw away 100+ million a year if you don't have to?

dopamean 5y ago
"throw away"

tiahura 5y ago

The real takeaway is how underfunded higher Ed is. I’m no Marxist but my intuition is that the the total payoff of a system where every high school graduate who maintains halfway decent grades can attend State U Springfield, tuition and room and board covered, would exceed the costs?

CrazyPyroLinux 5y ago
Wait, you think Yale is underfunded...?
- jagger27 5y ago
  I would restate it as “how underfunded the rest of higher Ed is.”

jasode 5y ago

>, surely the interest from Yale's massive endowment could cover tuition for a much greater number of students? A lot of endowments (most?) are earmarked for a specific purpose because that was the condition for receiving the charity money from the donator. And funding general tuition often doesn't meet the conditions. (Several articles explain this: https://www.google.com/search?q=ivy+league+endowments+earmarked https://www.google.com/search?q=ivy+league+endowments+earmar...) And the alternative of donating "unrestricted" sometimes doesn't have the desired outcome the public wants to see. (E.g. spending on football scoreboard instead of financial aid for students. Previous comment about that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26377357 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26377357 )