What do former President George W. Bush and actress Meryl Streep have in common? They are Yalies. Yale University is one of the nation's most prestigious private liberal arts institutions, as well as one of its oldest (founded in 1701). Its roughly $17 billion endowment ranks as one of the largest in the US. Yale comprises an undergraduate college, – more... a graduate school, and more than a dozen professional schools. Programs of study include architecture, law, medicine, and drama. Its 12 residential colleges (a system borrowed from Oxford) serve as dormitory, dining hall, and social center. The school has around 14,000 students and nearly 4,000 faculty members.

Yale's Endowment grew about 9% in 2010, producing a gain of $1.4 billion. Over the past ten years, the Endowment has grown from $10 billion to the nearly $17 billion mentioned earlier. – less