Harvard is nearly as rich as God. With almost $11 billion in assets, it is rumored to be rivaled among non-profits only by the Vatican, which keeps its finances a little closer to its robes.

Whether or not this claim is true, it speaks to Harvard's reputation as the wealthy son of 360 years of generous investment, right back to John Harvard's personal library.

"[The endowment] is a mark of distinction and a certain mark of pride and stability," says David C. Johnson, director of University development operations. "Harvard's been around for 400 years, and it's going to be around for another 400 years. Harvard has staying power."

Every year, Harvard attracts a more talented and diverse group of students than it ever has before. Every year, Harvard pulls more of the world's top academics into its synergistic fold. Every year, Harvard acquires more of the nation's dollars for higher education, both in the form of a skyrocketing endowment and in perpetual dominance of the market for outside funds.

Every year, Harvard monopolizes more and more educational resources of every kind, hungrily competing against the pack of other institutions to be the best. And it usually wins.

But what is ironic is that the cause of Harvard's preeminence is also its effect: prestige. The farther ahead of the pack Harvard gets, the more resources it can attract and the more prestige it garners.

Ever-greedy for preeminence, Harvard always strives for more. But is what's good for Harvard always good for the country? Is greed good?

$56,880,101

This is the amount of money Harvard received in 1994-95 from private foundations, making Harvard the largest educational recipient of foundation support.

Though educational institutions often pride themselves on being the ultimate meritocracies, when these same institutions vie for funding from the government, foundations and corporations, success can be determined by factors other than merit. Harvard's age, its mammoth endowment and extensive alumni networks all affect how big a piece of the national pie Harvard calls its own.

And the piece is substantial. In addition to Harvard's top performance with foundations, it also received more money in 1995 from the National Science Foundation than all the institutions in North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Vermont and Idaho combined--more than $31.5 million.

It consistently ranks in the top 15 schools to receive federal funding, a figure which doesn't include funds granted to Harvard's affiliated hospitals such as Mass. General. Were that money included, Harvard would be "way up there," according to one University official.

Decreases in federal funding and more aggressive fundraising by institutions outside of higher education has reduced the amount of money available to any one institution and intensified the competition for funding.

Officials in higher education are quick to point out that merit outweighs any other factor in winning funds, but they also agree that Harvard and other prestigious universities have advantages that other schools--particularly large state institutions--do not.

Reputation is one such asset.