"You could make all your grants to Harvard if you want to make safe bets to places that already have vast resources," he says. "But what's the value added...to other less resource-rich places?"

Zwerling says foundations must make an extra effort to give grants to a variety of institutions because that is the only way to learn what programs work best.

But at present, foundations are drawn to big names, and big differences in reputation stand to create a widening gap between "haves and have-nots," says Theodore J. Cicero, vice chancellor for research at Washington University.

The implications, he says, are national in scope.

"I think in the long term that unless the situation corrects itself, it's probably not a good situation for higher education," he says. "The other schools will begin to trail behind, which is not a good thing for the country...as higher education resources are going to be shrinking."

Many development officials would like to see the wealth spread around more.

"When I was at Berkeley, I would not have hesitated to say you should invest with an organization that has a proven track record of success," Barber says. "But now that I have to look at a broader range of things, I am not sure that's true."

"I think all the great institutions have so much money that they're going to do well. Maybe it's the next tier down that needs more help."

$32,704

This is Harvard's estimate of what the price of attending the College will be in the '97-'98 school year, including tuition, fees and "personal money." It is also about three-fourths of the average family income in America, and about the price of one of the 275,757 Mercedes Benz sedans Harvard could buy with its endowment.

Of course, the expense of attending Harvard College has not always been this high. Only 11 years ago the full cost of attending was half what it is today, $16,300.

Tuition will increase: That's inflation. But comparing tuition increases to the inflation rate over the past 20 years shows that a devalued dollar cannot account for all of this increase.

From 1973 to 1983, tuition and inflation rose hand in hand. Harvard's tuition increases and the inflation rate were almost identical during five of these 10 years.

During the hyperinflation of the late '70s and early '80s, when rates were nearly as high as 14 percent, Harvard at points increased its tuition at half that rate.

Then in the 1980s, the two lines diverged and have only come close to increasing at the same rate again this year, when tuition increased by nearly 4 percent with inflation hovering around 3 percent.