[OT] they have the money, but they still suck

[jy3]

hahvahd endowment reaches 25 billion
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/09/30/harvard.endowment.ap/index.html

[kaelistus]

And yet they still charge 40k or so for entrance. Could someone explain to me why an alumni would give more money to them?

[RichH]

[Q]kaelistus Wrote:

 And yet they still charge 40k or so for entrance. Could someone explain to me why an alumni would give more money to them? [/q]

As a very wise late-night talk show host once said in the 2000 Harvard Commencement Address:

[Q]There is also sadness today, a feeling of loss that you're leaving Harvard forever. Well, let me assure you that you never really leave Harvard. The Harvard Fundraising Committee will be on your ass until the day you die. Right now, a member of the Alumni Association is at the Mt. Auburn Cemetery shaking down the corpse of Henry Adams. They heard he had a brass toe ring and they aims to get it. Imagine: These people just raised 2.5 billion dollars and they only got through the B's in the alumni directory. Here's how it works. Your phone rings, usually after a big meal when you're tired and most vulnerable. A voice asks you for money. Knowing they just raised 2.5 billion dollars you ask, "What do you need it for?" Then there's a long pause and the voice on the other end of the line says, "We don't need it, we just want it." It's chilling.[/Q]

http://www.february-7.com/features/conan.htm

[Trotsky]

Major Stanford alumni have very public competitions one-upping one another; it's probably the same effect.

Good money and good sense are unrelated phenomena.

[Beeeej]

Perhaps alumni (that's plural, by the way) continue to give to Hahvahd partly because they understand how endowments work.

Beeeej

[min]

let's not forget that harvard has also been around the block the longest...  at a modest 6% annual interest, a $15 principal should give you $25.9 billion in 367 years!  ::nut::

[KeithK]

[q]Good money and good sense are unrelated phenomena.[/q]Who needs good sense when you have good money?  One of the great things about being rich is it provides you with a big margin of error on your stupidity.

[French Rage]

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

 [Q2]Good money and good sense are unrelated phenomena.[/Q]
Who needs good sense when you have good money?  One of the great things about being rich is it provides you with a big margin of error on your stupidity.[/q]

Like multiple failed oil companies! :-D

[RichH]

[Q]KeithK Wrote:
One of the great things about being rich is it provides you with a big margin of error on your stupidity.[/q]

And how!

(If Lowell can make jokes about his UMass namesake...)

[MNetravali]

All that money won't help them buy a couple of goals on our D!

[jy3]

or avoid the fish!:-D

[johnnieAg\'99]

[Q]MNetravali Wrote:

 All that money won't help them buy a couple of goals on our D![/q]

Last year they only needed one at Lynah East :`(

But seriously, Sucks does have the best financial aid package out there - it's free for families with less tan $40k, seriously reduced under $60k, etc. - and the $25B has to cover lots of graduate schools.  Princeton is the only other school that's close for aid.  

What really shocks me about them is that lots of people give multi-million $ gifts who didn't even go there - they just want to give to "#1" :-(