Cape Cod homes are similar to the British or American Colonial homes, though they originated further north in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. These are often seen as the classic American family home since the style’s revival in the 20th Century.
Cape Cod homes are identified by their:
- Shingle exteriors
- Modest size and ornamentation compared to British Colonial homes
- Originally single-story homes
- Large central fireplaces
- Attic lofts (20th-century revival)
- Dormer windows (20th-century revival)
Cape Cod homes are built of local wood and stone to withstand the north-eastern weather. This exterior weathering provides an iconic weathered-blue color to these homes.
Modern Tudor homes are inspired by Medieval European Tudor homes and often have a charming cottage aesthetic. They’re popular on the East Coast and in parts of the Midwest.
Tudor homes are an easy style to identify. They feature:
- Steeply pitched gable roofs
- Exposed and decorative half-timbering with stucco exterior
- Mixed-material brick or stone walls
- Casement windows in groups or with diamond shapes
The Tudor Revival reached peak popularity in the 1920s and is still widely popular today.
A college endowment refers to all the money that an institution receives in donations. However, endowment funds are not ‘no-questions-asked’ cash boosts for the college. Instead, endowments are tightly controlled investments that are supposed to be grown so that the interest can be used to upgrade facilities, hire new staff, provide scholarships or aid the college or its students in some way.
Over the past three decades, the total market value of the 20 largest college endowments has grown nearly tenfold — from $30.6 billion to $302.1 billion. As the size of college endowments has increased, so too has the debate over their purpose, management and ethical obligations.
To get a better idea of how college endowments have changed over the last 30 years, DegreeQuery looked at the market value of the 20 largest U.S. college endowments from 1990 to 2020.
30 Years of U.S. college endowments
Based on the most recent NACUBO survey of 810 universities, the total market value of endowments in 2018 was $624.3 billion. 48.3% of that is held by just 20 colleges. But why the huge growth in market value over the past 30 years? It might be something to do with how much of the endowment the university chooses to spend on operations or the return rates of the endowment’s investment portfolio. Due to their often wealthy donor base and long-term investment horizons, the largest university endowments can invest in a diverse array of asset classes, and often grow faster than the economy as a whole.
From 1990 to 2020, the market value of the 20 largest college endowments grew at an average annual rate of 8.5% — faster than the 6.6% average annual growth rate for the Fortune 500 over the same period. The universities with the fastest growth over the past 30 years include the University of Michigan, Duke University and the University of Notre Dame. Meanwhile, the endowments with the slowest growth include Emory University, Rice University and Washington University in St. Louis.
1. U.S. college endowments in the 1990s
From 1990 to 1999, the market value of the 20 largest U.S. college endowments grew at an average annual rate of 12.5% — the fastest of the last three decades. As you can see from our graph, over this period, the University of Michigan endowment rose from the 20th largest to the 17th largest, and the University of Pennsylvania rose from the 16th largest to the 12th largest. Meanwhile, the Columbia University endowment fell from the sixth-largest to the 11th largest. Although the University of Texas System endowment had the slowest growth of the 20 largest endowments over this period, it remained the second-largest endowment overall.
2. U.S. college endowments in the 2000s
Endowment growth is closely connected with the overall health of the economy. As of 2018, just 4% of endowment assets were held as cash, the rest invested in equities, fixed income instruments and alternative investment vehicles. In the lead up to the 2008 financial crisis — university endowments had increasingly invested in high-risk, illiquid investments like private equity, real estate and hedge funds. As a result, endowments lost tens of billions of dollars in value, with some schools losing more than 25% of their total endowment value. From 2008 to 2009, the total value of the 20 largest endowments fell 3.4%. Yale posted the largest percentage decline, losing 28.6% of its market value. Other university endowments that posted big losses from the recession include Harvard, Duke and Stanford.
3. U.S. college endowments in the 2010s
Endowment growth rates rebounded in the wake of the Great Recession, although growth was still slow compared to the 1990s. From 2010 to 2018, the market value of the 20 largest endowments grew at an average annual rate of 7.6%. This is more than the 3.5% average annual growth rate for 2000 to 2009, yet less than the 12.5% rate for 1990 to 1999. During this period, the biggest winners were the University of Pennsylvania, rising from 11th to 7th largest, and the Texas A&M University System, which rose from 10th to 8th largest. Lackluster performance at some of the wealthiest schools has prompted some universities to make major changes to their endowment management. In 2017, for example, Harvard announced it would lay off roughly half of its 230-person staff in the wake of poor investment performance.
As you can see, university endowments were big business over the past 30 years. Nowadays, students, policymakers and the general public are increasingly involved in the conversation surrounding their management, mission and societal impact. For example, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which imposed a 1.4% tax on the net investment income of the wealthiest endowments, recently sparked a wave of criticism from university administrators. Elsewhere on campus, protesting students demanded their universities divest from fossil fuel companies.
As the debate rages on and endowments continue to grow, these visualizations help us see how we got to this point.
Methodology
To get a better idea of how college endowments have changed over the last 30 years, DegreeQuery looked at the market value of the 20 largest U.S. college endowments from 1990 to 2018. Data on endowment asset value by university came from the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and is unadjusted for inflation. In years when certain universities did not participate in the NACUBO survey, we estimated the endowment value based on the compound annual growth rate for all available years. Estimated figures include the market value of the endowment assets for the Texas A&M University System for 1990, as well as the market value of the endowment assets for the University of California system for the years 1990 through 1992.
SOURCES
Fortune 500. (n.d.) Fortune 500 2018. fortune.com
NACUBO. (2019). Detailed Asset Allocations for U.S. College and University Endowments and Affiliated Foundations, FY18. nacubo.org
Miller, C. & Fabrikant, G. (2008). Universities retrench as endowments suffer from financial crisis. nytimes.com
Humphreys, J. et al. (2010). Educational Endowments and the Financial Crisis: Social Costs and Systemic Risks in the Shadow Banking System. tellus.org
Plender, J. (2014). There is a history lesson to be learnt from Yale endowment. ft.com
Fabrikant, G. (2017). Harvard Makes Changes in Managing a Lagging Endowment. nytimes.com
Tax Policy Center. (n.d.). What is the tax treatment of college and university endowments? taxpolicycenter.org
The United States has 63 national parks, which are Congressionally-designated protected areas operated by the National Park Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior.[1] National parks are designated for their natural beauty, unique geological features, diverse ecosystems, and recreational opportunities. While legislatively all units of the National Park System are considered equal with the same mission, national parks are generally larger and more of a destination, and hunting and extractive activities are prohibited.[2] National monuments, on the other hand, are also frequently protected for their historical or archaeological significance. Eight national parks (including six in Alaska) are paired with a national preserve, areas with different levels of protection that are administered together but considered separate units and whose areas are not included in the figures below. The 423 units of the National Park System can be broadly referred to as national parks, but most have other formal designations.[3]
A bill creating the first national park, Yellowstone, was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, followed by Mackinac National Park in 1875 (decommissioned in 1895), and then Rock Creek Park (later merged into National Capital Parks), Sequoia and Yosemite in 1890. The Organic Act of 1916 created the National Park Service "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."[4] Many current national parks had been previously protected as national monuments by the president under the Antiquities Act or as other designations created by Congress before being redesignated by Congress; the newest national park is New River Gorge, previously a National River, and the most recent entirely new park is National Park of American Samoa. A few former national parks are no longer designated as such, or have been disbanded. Fourteen national parks are designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS),[5] and 21 national parks are named UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BR),[6] with eight national parks in both programs.
Thirty states have national parks, as do the territories of American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The state with the most national parks is California with nine, followed by Alaska with eight, Utah with five, and Colorado with four. The largest national park is Wrangell–St. Elias in Alaska: at over 8 million acres (32,375 km2), it is larger than each of the nine smallest states. The next three largest parks are also in Alaska. The smallest park is Gateway Arch National Park, Missouri, at 192.83 acres (0.7804 km2). The total area protected by national parks is approximately 52.2 million acres (211,000 km2), for an average of 829 thousand acres (3,350 km2) but a median of only 208 thousand acres (840 km2).[7]
The national parks set a visitation record in 2017, with more than 84 million visitors and set a further record in 2018 with a 0.1% increase.[8][9] Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee has been the most-visited park since 1944,[10] and had over 14 million visitors in 2021.[11] In contrast, only about 7,000 people visited the remote Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in Alaska in 2021.
American popular music has had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, bluegrass, country, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, punk, disco, house, techno, salsa, grunge and hip hop. In addition, the American music industry is quite diverse, supporting a number of regional styles such as zydeco, klezmer and slack-key.
Distinctive styles of American popular music emerged early in the 19th century, and in the 20th century the American music industry developed a series of new forms of music, using elements of blues and other genres of American folk music. These popular styles included country, R&B, jazz and rock. The 1960s and 1970s saw a number of important changes in American popular music, including the development of a number of new styles, such as heavy metal, punk, soul, and hip hop. Though these styles were not in the sense of mainstream, they were commercially recorded and are thus examples of popular music as opposed to folk or classical music.
Mid-century Modern designs are nothing new and have influenced interior design, graphic art, and house styles. Mid-century Modern homes are designed to embrace minimalism and nature. They’re also often modeled to appeal to a futuristic or abstract concept.
Mid-century Modern homes can be identified by their:
- Flat planes and clean lines
- Monochromatic brickwork
- Asymmetrical home layouts
- Nature-inspired interior
- Interior level shifts between rooms
Mid-century architecture is still widely popular today, as are Mid-century Modern interior design and furniture trends.
Victorian homes were built between 1837 and 1901 while Queen Victoria reigned in Britain. “Victorian” actually refers to multiple styles that vary in influence, but each features ornate detailing and asymmetrical floor plans.
The key features of a Victorian-era home include:
- Elaborate woodwork and trim
- Towers, turrets, and dormer windows
- Steep gabled roofs
- Partial or full-width porches
Victorian homes are all about ornamentation — industrialization allowed these homes to be produced en masse and across a variety of architectural styles.
Georgian-style homes were one of the most common styles in the 18th century and showcased formal and classical details that previous homes didn’t. Georgian houses are similar to Federal houses, though they can be distinguished by:
- A crown and pilasters framing the front door
- Decorative quoins or bricks at the corners
- Smooth decorative blocks as moulding
You can also find regional variations with hooded front doors and pent roofs between levels.
The French Colonial house style can be seen around the world and has significant variety among its sub-styles.
French Colonial houses have the same symmetry as other Colonial homes with these distinct features:
- Dormer windows, including one centered above the door
- External stairs to enter higher floors
- Iron stairs and balconies
- Slightly raised basements to support the floor
French Colonial houses are most similar to Spanish Colonial houses and easily identified by their elaborate iron balconies, stairs, and entrances.
Shingle-style homes took influence from Colonial architecture rather than Medieval Europe. Ornamentation became simpler towards the end of the Victorian-era and Shingle-style homes are best known for their creative floor plans and signature shingles on exterior walls.
Shingle Victorian homes are identified by these interior and exterior features:
- Shingles cover the entire exterior
- Asymmetrical interior layouts without a central hallway
- Emphasis on horizontal planes
- Custom built to meld with the nature surrounding the house
Shingle-style houses were designed as a work of art and encouraged creativity in their use of shapes and features.
House styles will continue to evolve with influences from history, culture, and our lifestyles. All of these house styles can be seen and celebrated across the US and have their own stories to tell. Choose the house style that fits your lifestyle, location, and, of course, personal style best. Then check your credit score, get pre-approved, and start house-hunting.
The American Farmhouse is a simple and timeless style. Farmhouses are designed to be practical first and foremost. They’re common across the US and often showcase regional variations, like wrap-around porches in the South.
Farmhouses have evolved with time and location, but often feature these elements:
- Rectangular floor plan
- Large front porches
- Natural wood and stone materials
- Few and small windows
- Formal front rooms separated from family rooms
Of course, the easiest way to identify a farmhouse is that they’ll often be situated on a large plot of farmland.
