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Colleges shovel more cash in their vaults

Penn trails Princeton, beats Harvard, Yale in 2010 endowment race

The National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Commonfund Institute say the typical US college endowment added almost 10 cents for every $1 invested, during 2010, as alumni started giving again and the investment markets continued their recovery from 2007's collapse.

This isn't just a result of investment values rising. It also includes the impact of endowment spending at schools that are using the recession to build more and cheaper; money management fees, highest at big schools that tend to buy more real estate and other private investments; and new gifts from alumni and other donors.

The biggest US endowment, Harvard rose just 5%, to $27.6 billion; Yale, 2%, to $16.7 billion. By contrast, No. 3 Princeton's rose 14%, to $14.9 billion.

Here's what Philadelphia-area schools with at least $100 million tucked away reported for their endowments during 2010:

University of Pennsylvania, up 9.6%, to $5.67 billion
Penn State, up 11.6%, to $1.37 billion
Swarthmore College, up 10.7%, to $1.25 billion
Lehigh, up 6.1$, to $940 million
Rutgers, up 10.7%, to $603 million
Bryn Mawr, up 9.9%, to $574 million
Drexel, up 5.3%, to $427 million
Villanova, up 11.6%, to $298 million
Temple, up 12.1%, to $236 million
Saint Joseph's, up $16.9%, to $145 million
University of the Sciences, up 19%, to $135 million
Osteopathic, up 48.6%, to $134 million