Harvard vs. Berea - and Values
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As an investor, I have always marveled at the annual financial performance of the Harvard endowment. Lately, Harvard and a lot of other schools, have had to explain the use they put their huge endowments to, especially in light of the fact that they are allowed to accumulate their wealth tax-free.
Berea College in Kentucky is a little bit different. The college was founded 150 years ago to educate freed slaves and "poor white mountaineers" (Lewin). Currently it accepts only needy applicants (three member families have less than $47,000 annual income) (Berea). The interesting clincher? Every admitted student attends tuition free. Berea, because of its unique values system, has a $1.1 billion endowment, small by Harvard's $35 billion standard, but large when compared to the pool of American universities.
One last unique Berea attribute: every student has an on-campus job requiring at least ten hours per week engagement.
Certainly sounds interesting to me.
References
Berea College. http://www.berea.edu/prospectivestudents/admissioninfo/requirements.asp
Lewin, Tamar. With No Frills or Tuition, a College Draws Notice. New York Times. 21 Juy 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/education/21endowments.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin