(FORTUNE Magazine) – It seems as if the best minds on Wall Street are actually at the nation's top universities. The schools with the five biggest endowments in the U.S. have all made the grade, beating the S&P 500 by a wide margin in fiscal 2001, which ended June 30. The index shed 15%; the schools lost 32 percentage points at most. Still, the single-digit performance of 2001 pales in comparison with 2000, when many racked up returns of 30% or more. --J.B.

Endowment* 2001 rate School in billions of return

Harvard $18.3 -2.7%

Comment With the biggest endowment around, Harvard suffered modest disappointments in real estate and private equity.

Yale $10.7 9.2%

[Comment] Top-performing Yale refuses to spill its secrets but says students benefit from its investing prowess: Endowment spending is up 20% in 2001.

University of Texas System $9.4 -3.5%

[Comment] UT may be a football giant, but it has been out-returned by wimpy Ivy Leaguers. Its 2000 run-up of 16.5% was less than half of the other top five's.

Princeton $8.4 2.4%

[Comment] Princeton's investment in hedge funds "vastly outperformed" the market, handily making up for losses in venture capital and telecom.

Stanford $8.3 -2.0%

[Comment] Stanford wasn't spared in the Silicon Valley crash.The VC and LBO investments that soared nearly 40% in 2000 dragged returns this year.

*Year-end market value for fiscal year 2001.

FORTUNE TABLE/SOURCE: CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION