SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Stanford University has set a new record in college fundraising, becoming the first school to collect more than $1 billion in a single year.
For the eighth straight year, Stanford ranked first in the Council for Aid to Education's annual college fundraising survey, which was released Wednesday.
The report found roughly 3,500 U.S. colleges and universities raised $31 billion in the 2012 fiscal year. That's 2.3 percent more than the previous year but just below the 2008 record of $31.6 billion.
Topping the list was Stanford at $1.035 billion, followed by Harvard University at $650 million, Yale University at $544 million, the University of Southern California at $492 million and Columbia University at $490 million.
The top 10 fundraising schools collected $5.3 billion, or 17 percent, of the $31 billion.
