Following a wave of midterm financial updates that began with Harvard and Yale, Stanford University and Dartmouth College announced record drops in their endowments. Stanford, whose $17 billion endowment last June was the third largest in higher education, is expecting a decline of between 20 and 30 percent, the Stanford Daily student newspaper reported Friday. Stanford announced plans in November to cut its budget by $100 million. Dartmouth’s endowment, meanwhile, dropped 18 percent, or $700 million, as of Dec. 31, the Dartmouth student newspaper reported Friday. The college hopes to cut the budget by $40 million and will begin staff layoffs as early as next month.