It was a huge deal for a number of schools. This move makes the NESCAC as well as schools like Swat and Pomona exempt where is was going to cost a few of them many millions of dollars per year. It just shows that it was nothing but revenge politics. Protecting Hillsdale was more import than any other reasoning. Notre Dame is taking it in the shorts on this one. |
It was a big deal to my family. We chose a WASP school because of the financial aid. DS could have gone to our public flagship on a scholarship for a little less overall money. But the flagship, while a great option, is usually ranked between 150 and 200, and the WASP school seemed to have a lot of "value added." When Congress passed the original version of the bill, it certainly created a bit of anxiety. Were we going to have to dip into my retirement plan? If we couldn't afford the WASP, DS could transfer to the public flagship but would have lost the opportunity for the scholarship. In short, these things matter.
Side note: I feel bad for Dartmouth, which has a large endowment for its ~4,500 students and, in my mind, is more LAC than university. |
Dartmouth cozied up to Trump and got nothing in return. Boo hoo |
At my Williams reunion in June, the President told the alumni society that the tax could cost Williams as much as $40 million per year. That was really operating money for the college. |
No, it is not. An 8% tax on investment income (because it is not on the whole endowment, but on investment income only) is a billion dollars for exactly zero institutions. For Harvard it is maybe a bit over $300 million and it goes down quickly from there for other institutions. And that’s on an endowment over $50 billion and before they take steps to reduce their realized investment income. There are only four other institutions above the size threshold and in the 8% bracket. |
I think Hillsdale was already exempt because they don’t take federal money. |
They were exempt from title IX compliance but not the endowment tax. They tried to write a carve out but it was rejected. |
Williams chooses to finance an incredibly expensive all-grant program. The college could splurge on whatever it wanted if it got rid of that. |
Ah, thanks for the clarification |
What program is this? |
Financial aid |
Hillsdale will indeed be exempt, as will other rich LACs, such as Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Swarthmore, Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Carleton, Grinnell, Davidson, W&L, Wellesley and Bryn Mawr. https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2025/07/05/these-26-rich-private-colleges-just-got-a-tax-cut-from-republicans/ |
Yeah, let’s go back to making college only for the rich. F*ck them poors, right? |
^that was satire, if you didn’t notice |
I'm confused. Is the endowment tax a tax of AUM or on the income the endowment generates? I always thought is was the AUM. |