It is obscene that Princeton has a 36 BILLION dollar endowment and will pay $0 in federal tax on it. Before this year they had to pay around $5 million to $10 million annually from investment gains. They now will pay nothing as they will be exempt from this tax.

There are currently fewer than 60 countries on Earth that hold more cash and liquid assets in their central banks than Princeton University holds in its endowment.

Morocco: Keeps $37 billion cash/reserves to support and protect 37 million people. (That is $1,000 per person).

Princeton: Keeps $36 billion to support and protect 8,500 students. (That is $4,200,000 per person).

Anonymous wrote:If I apply as Pell Grant eligible, does this increase my chances of admission?

Probably. They like poor kids.

If I apply as Pell Grant eligible, does this increase my chances of admission?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ironically Princeton will now be "need aware" as it has to make sure it doesn't take too many full pay kids.

Sorry - too rich - we don't want you. You'll trigger the tax. Or "we have too many full pay kids - here's a full scholarship you don't really need. Congratulations!"

The rich are still very overrepresented at Princeton, just a bit less than at Harvard and Yale. Need-blind has never existed anyway.

Of course, at any point, Princeton could dole out dollars not on the basis of need. Or make the school free for anyone making under $500,000 year. The possibilities are endless.

I don't think the rich are over-represented at all. Compared to the past, there are many more kids on aid. This is a university, not a charity. Personally I think a lot of the top schools have gone overboard tripping over themselves to admit FGLI kids.

This is hilarious. 17% of Princeton students are from the top 1%. 58% of Princeton students are from the top 10%. Only 13% come from the bottom 60% of the income distribution. Rich kids are, by definition, over represented.

And Princeton IS LITERALLY A CHARITY. It is a 501(c)(3).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ironically Princeton will now be "need aware" as it has to make sure it doesn't take too many full pay kids.

Sorry - too rich - we don't want you. You'll trigger the tax. Or "we have too many full pay kids - here's a full scholarship you don't really need. Congratulations!"

The rich are still very overrepresented at Princeton, just a bit less than at Harvard and Yale. Need-blind has never existed anyway.

Of course, at any point, Princeton could dole out dollars not on the basis of need. Or make the school free for anyone making under $500,000 year. The possibilities are endless.

I don't think the rich are over-represented at all. Compared to the past, there are many more kids on aid. This is a university, not a charity. Personally I think a lot of the top schools have gone overboard tripping over themselves to admit FGLI kids.

No, they’re finding kids they’ve traditionally missed who are just as capable as the rich kids. And yes the rich are still very over represented. And I say this as a full pay parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ironically Princeton will now be "need aware" as it has to make sure it doesn't take too many full pay kids.

Sorry - too rich - we don't want you. You'll trigger the tax. Or "we have too many full pay kids - here's a full scholarship you don't really need. Congratulations!"

The rich are still very overrepresented at Princeton, just a bit less than at Harvard and Yale. Need-blind has never existed anyway.

Of course, at any point, Princeton could dole out dollars not on the basis of need. Or make the school free for anyone making under $500,000 year. The possibilities are endless.

I don't think the rich are over-represented at all. Compared to the past, there are many more kids on aid. This is a university, not a charity. Personally I think a lot of the top schools have gone overboard tripping over themselves to admit FGLI kids.

And why are we salty about this???

Yet despite the best FA in the country they can’t stop students from cheating and doing away with exams without proctors d/t cheating. And of course students cheated before, just more rampant.

Anonymous wrote:Ironically Princeton will now be "need aware" as it has to make sure it doesn't take too many full pay kids.

Sorry - too rich - we don't want you. You'll trigger the tax. Or "we have too many full pay kids - here's a full scholarship you don't really need. Congratulations!"

The rich are still very overrepresented at Princeton, just a bit less than at Harvard and Yale. Need-blind has never existed anyway.

Of course, at any point, Princeton could dole out dollars not on the basis of need. Or make the school free for anyone making under $500,000 year. The possibilities are endless.

Ironically Princeton will now be "need aware" as it has to make sure it doesn't take too many full pay kids.

Sorry - too rich - we don't want you. You'll trigger the tax. Or "we have too many full pay kids - here's a full scholarship you don't really need. Congratulations!"

As far as tax planning goes, this is fairly straightforward on Princeton's part. You can't adopt tax laws intended to punish "woke, elite institutions" and then complain when a school finds a way to comply with the law as written without incurring additional taxes.

You can rest assured that Trump's accountants, and well as those preparing the returns of most of his friends, have engaged in far more aggressive tax planning strategies over the years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using this loophole, Princeton’s tax savings are basically equal to its total financial aid expenditures. So in effect, the U.S. taxpayers are now funding the tuition of over half of the Princeton student body.

With a tax they have never collected before

There’s been an endowment tax since like 2017 or so. It’s just higher now.

Anonymous wrote:Using this loophole, Princeton’s tax savings are basically equal to its total financial aid expenditures. So in effect, the U.S. taxpayers are now funding the tuition of over half of the Princeton student body.

With a tax they have never collected before

Anonymous wrote:Brilliant and well-played. Curious how it'll work out for the other 10 or so schools hit with the endowment tax.

https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2026/05/princeton-news-adpol-university-spared-endowment-tax-financial-aid-millions-princo

And just like that, they only needed 3000 tuition paying students.

Anonymous wrote:It’s very clever, but when my child was looking at Princeton, I did think about what it would be like to pay full tuition at a place where the majority of classmates are paying little or nothing. I’m glad for them but schools with less generous policies (Yale) do feel fairer to payers like me who aren’t rich. Which is not something I’d thought about before.

Why would this particularly bother a student? I’ve seen quite a few seniors posting this year on other platforms how they turned down other schools for Princeton in part because of its more generous aid.