(MONEY Magazine) – It boasts the country's best business school, according to a recent Business Week poll, but the University of Pennsylvania barely musters a passing grade when it comes to managing its $3 billion endowment. A recent study by Cambridge Associates found that Penn, home of the Wharton School of Business (renowned for sending graduates to Wall Street), had the second to worst returns among the schools studied, with 7.1% for the year ended March 31. That's well below the 16.5% returned by the S&P 500, but the curve was set even higher by schools like Duke and Notre Dame, which earned 64.8% and 62.2%, respectively, with sizable investments in venture-capital firms. Penn declined to comment, but in May, director of investments Naru Narvakar told Pensions & Investments that the school planned to up its stake in such ventures.

--ILANA POLYAK