How high with today’s largest endowments grow by 2055?

How might the richest American colleges and universities develop in the future?

I’ve been looking at this small yet superinfluential slice of higher education for a while. For example, since 2018 I’ve been trying to forecast when the most expensive campus will crack six figures for its annual cost of attendance. (Right now it looks like 2025/2026, so coming up fast) And I follow research from other people. The New Press published two powerful books, The Merit Myth (Anthony Carnevale et al) and Poison Ivy (Evan Mandery) (also a fantastic Future Trends Forum guest in 2022).

Last week Joshua Kim offered a thoughtful addition to this topic at his Inside Higher Ed column. He examined college and university endowments, looking back in time, then projecting them forward. I’d like to draw your attention to the latter today.

Josh, looking appropriately serious in his official photo.

(Just a quick reminder about the reality of endowments: only a tiny fraction of America’s 4,000 or so colleges and universities have endowments of meaningful size. Endowments are not savings accounts, as a good amount of the funding tends to be structured for certain purposes.)

Josh begins with data from NACUBO, an organization I greatly admire and have worked with. He sets the stage by looking at the endowments of the richest institutions back in 1990, first with…