The U.S. Department of Defense is considering ending tuition assistance for active-duty service members enrolled in graduate programs at 33 schools, including Northwestern.

Since the second Trump administration came into power, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has held a highly critical view of top U.S. universities. In line with his rationale for reshaping the department, he has complained and characterized elite schools nationwide as riddled with wokeness and anti-military bias.

It came to a head last week when Hegseth announced that the department would cut ties with Harvard University in relation to all graduate-level professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs starting in the 2026-2027 school year.

“For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class,” Hegseth said. “Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks.”

Hegseth also ordered the department to “evaluate all existing graduate programs for active-duty members at Ivy League universities and any other universities that similarly diminish critical thinking and have significant adversary involvement,” CNN reported.

A preliminary list of institutions that fits that criteria includes Northwestern, according to CNN.

If enforced, the change could ultimately curb attendance for service members planning to attend such universities.

Why hasn’t Northwestern ever scratched the top 5 of the U.S. News and World Report college rankings? The answer likely lies in the university’s endowment. 

According to the 2025 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments, which was published last week, Northwestern’s endowment grew by 6.74% from fiscal year 2024 to 2025. The endowment sits at a market value of about $15.17 billion, according to the report. 

The report showed that Northwestern has the 13th most valuable endowment of the over 600 institutions that participated in the study. Northwestern outpaced the University of Chicago, which grew by about 5.11% between fiscal year 2024 and 2025. 

The top five endowments, in order, belong to Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Readers may notice the similarity of this list to the top slots of the U.S. News college rankings: Princeton is #1, MIT is #2, Harvard is #3, and Stanford and Yale are tied for #4. 

These schools’ endowments are notably higher than Northwestern’s. Harvard’s endowment sits at over $55 billion, more than triple Northwestern’s endowment. 

Northwestern also struggles to compete with some large state school systems like the University of Texas system (#6 in endowment study), the University of Texas A&M system (#8) and the University of Michigan system (#9).

This is not to say Northwestern’s endowment isn’t valuable — the average endowment based on the study was $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2025, while the median endowment was only $260 million. 

Have you ever wondered who the Northwestern faculty’s top earners are? 

As a tax-exempt nonprofit that makes significant revenue, Northwestern is required to file a Form 990 each year, which includes a section on the highest paid employees at Northwestern. Though these employees are mostly top administrators and coaches, a few professors make the list each year. 

The forms are slightly behind — the most recent data we have is from the 2023-2024 school year. But during that year, two professors were top earners: chemistry Prof. Chad Mirkin and Kellogg Prof. Mohanbir Sawhney. 

Mirkin made a total of $1.46 million in 2023-2024. While Mirkin’s position sits in the chemistry department, he is also a professor of medicine in hematology and oncology. His award-winning work is primarily in nanotechnology and its applications in biology and chemistry. He is the director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology, and he’s been issued more than 400 patents. 

Sawhney made almost $2.4 million in 2023-2024. He is a marketing professor at Kellogg, and he is the McCormick Foundation Chair of Technology and the Director of the Center for Research in Technology & Innovation. Sawhney is a globally recognized author and consultant. 

Interestingly, Mirkin’s base salary was about $993,000 — much higher than what the average professor at NU made in 2023-2024, which was $247,000 according to the American Association of University Professors. He then earned additional compensation that brought him to his $1.46 million salary. 

Sawhney, on the other hand, had a base salary of about $291,000, similar to other professors. But he made almost $2 million in “other reportable compensation” from the university, likely from running important centers at the university and consulting.

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