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Comment by huac | Hacker News Reader

while most students do pay much less than sticker price, saying 'most of the endowment is earmarked for student aid' feels misleading. in fy2019 harvard spent $193M on student aid (https://finance.harvard.edu/files/fad/files/fy19_harvard_fin...) -- compared to a $5.2B operating expense spend and a $41B endowment size.

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> in fy2019 harvard spent $193M on student aid

That is only undergraduate aid applied directly to tuition. Per Note 12 on page 43, "Total scholarships and other student awards" was $613,243k, of which $457,639K was in direct credits to expenses.

That said, I don't know where the GP got the idea that most of the endowment is earmarked for financial aid. Per page 11, that earmark is specifically 19%.

Endowment paying operating expenses is essentially financial aid, because it's a cost that is not passed on to the students.

A conservative 3% of endowment would be the expendable return. So about 1.2B? Wouldn't be surprised if 193M is the largest distinct chunk of that.

they have other operating income, e.g. tuition from everyone else, and are consistently doing capital raises. the single largest chunk of spending goes to employee wages (approx $2B); in fact, the $193M number is the smallest of all the line items in operating expenses.

as another comment points out, some of the salary and wage spend could be considered part of 'financial aid.'

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