"It's true that venture capital has been doing well, but what's really happened is that the top venture capital firms have really...performed," he said.

But though venture capital is very profitable for the University, Harvard has trouble putting as much in the area as it would like because the top firms can only handle a certain amount of money.

"There's a limited number of exceptional managers and those managers have...been able to pick and choose how much they're willing to take into their fund," said Scott Sperling, a partner at the Thomas H. Lee Company, who previously handled venture capital for HMC. "The supply of capital available to those players has exceeded their willingness and ability to absorb it."

Light said this is still a problem, although the percentage of the University's holdings invested in venture capital has risen because of the exceptional growth in this sector.

Sperling points out the University takes a relatively long-term view of investing, allowing for it to participate in the volatile venture capital market. "Harvard is one of the larger endowments, so they can look through the annual ups and downs of the venture capital market and take a relatively long-term view," he said.

But from year to year, according to old Harvard hands, the endowment is led by different investment categories.

"One year your real estate will do fine and your equity investments won't," said Jim Rowe, who served as vice president of government, community and public affairs from 1994-1998. "This is an extraordinarily diverse portfolio. Year in and year out some of these categories will do better than others."