How much do top liberal arts colleges spend per student on academics?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>How much do liberal arts colleges spend per student on academics?
IPEDS 2004</p>

<p>college, instructional expenses per (full time equivalent) student, academic support expenses per FTE</p>

<p>sorted by instructional expenditures </p>

<p>Why such big differences? Are the tuitions that different?</p>

<p>Bryn Mawr College 39272 14650
Wellesley College 27586 3861
Williams College 25968 5675
Swarthmore College 23549 8127
Pomona College 22943 6244
Hamilton College 22903 7747
Trinity College 22817 5181
Wesleyan University 22540 3916
Scripps College 21993 0
Harvey Mudd College 20675 5811
Vassar College 20277 5899
Oberlin College 20162 5602
Colgate University 19614 4494
Bowdoin College 19442 8132
Carleton College 18808 5135
Amherst College 18770 8360
Haverford College 18250 5981
Smith College 17936 8483
Sweet Briar College 17895 4566
Bard College 17754 3690
Pitzer College 17674 2964
Colorado College 17285 3634
Grinnell College 16826 5569
Principia College 16707 2424
Claremont McKenna College 16564 4419
Sarah Lawrence College 16150 2959
Reed College 16013 5073
Washington and Lee University 15906 4358
Lafayette College 15841 3880
Colby College 15649 4724
Bates College 15505 5718
Kalamazoo College 15355 3205
Barnard College 14851 2329
Mills College 14834 5107
Agnes Scott College 14830 6640
Illinois Wesleyan University 14807 3079
Mount Holyoke College 14730 5098
Rhodes College 14371 3463
Skidmore College 13814 4431
Kenyon College 13749 2997
Lawrence University 13508 2896
MacAlester College 12904 3204
St. Olaf College 12862 3265
Denison University 12819 3823
Franklin and Marshall College 12805 2664
Occidental College 12768 2539
Southwestern University 12628 2089
Bennington College 12598 2096
Davidson College 12479 3605
DePauw University 12474 5316
Sewanee: The University of the South 12313 4114
Bucknell University 12056 4411
Connecticut College 12041 4216
St Lawrence University 12002 3690
University of Puget Sound 11960 2910
Whitman College 11944 5170
College of the Holy Cross 11928 3072
Gettysburg College 11863 3434
Centre College 11791 2201
The College of Wooster 11789 2084
University of Richmond 11785 6363
Wabash College 11765 4434
Dickinson College 11599 4225
Wells College 11529 4233
Hobart William Smith Colleges 11388 3388
Goucher College 11259 1836
Earlham College 11189 1685
Hendrix College 11078 1355
Ohio Wesleyan University 10863 3615
Wheaton College 10849 3522
Furman University 10679 2476
Knox College 10665 3039
Drew University 10640 4871
Ursinus College 10334 2997
Hanover College 10279 2464
Middlebury College 10225 4323
Spelman College 10099 2047
Beloit College 10001 3296
Austin College 9822 1866
Muhlenberg College 9784 1596
Birmingham Southern College 9736 2050
Gustavus Adolphus College 9601 1295
Wheaton College 9467 2668
Willamette University 9418 3521
Allegheny College 9213 2915
Albion College 9178 2603
Hollins University 9084 2755
Thomas Aquinas College 9011 465
Saint Johns University 9003 3469
Virginia Military Institute 8782 3317
Randolph-Macon College 8691 2873
Augustana College 8339 3821
Millsaps College 8184 661
Wofford College 8056 3931
Hope College 7929 1974
Juniata College 7774 3152
New College of Florida 7477 1090
Presbyterian College 7472 2092
St Mary's College of Maryland 7072 1398
College of Saint Benedict 6952 2563</p>

2

<p>
[quote]
Why such big differences

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Because the calculation depends on internal accounting decisions that make it impossible to to a meaningful comparison.</p>

<p>"It includes expenditures for the colleges, schools, departments, and other instructional divisions of the institution and expenses for departmental research and public service that are not separately budgeted. It also includes general academic instruction, occupational and vocational instruction, community education, preparatory and adult basic education, and regular, special, and extension sessions. It also includes expenses for both credit and non-credit activities. It excludes expenses for academic administration where the primary function is administration (e.g., academic deans). Information technology expenses related to instructional activities if the institution separately budgets and expenses information technology resources are included (otherwise these expenses are included in “academic support”). (IPEDS)"</p>

<p>So variations in how colleges report certain activities in their budgets lead to certain costs being included in or excluded from this category. This means that information techology expenses, for example, may or may not be included. Not that a college does not spend money on this, but it may or may not be reported under instructional costs.</p>

3

<p>Middlebury seems unusually low in instructional expenditures. Does Middlebury have small programs in the expensive majors such as sciences?</p>

4

<p>I don't know, but apparently the all-around costs of educating a student at Amherst per year is about 75k.</p>