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What is the actual breakdown of costs for a university? In my experience at mostly public schools, it seems like a majority of the costs are in administration

What is the actual breakdown of costs for a university? In my experience at mostly public schools, it seems like a majority of the costs are in administration and buildings. Actual undergraduate education is an afterthought. So there likely is a lot of fat to cut at most schools. Not that schools would cut cost even with competition from a $10,000 total cost university. The cost of college has risen so much because you need a degree to get a decent job today. It is supply and demand. And students will always choose to take on debt for the big name school rather than save money with the cheaper school. What is interesting is that most big name schools don't seem to be putting all of that extra money into bettering undergraduate education.

tokenadult 15y ago
What is the actual breakdown of costs for a university? The College Results site is a database from which you can look up what spending there is for student instruction (according to United States federal government reporting definitions) for a variety of colleges from the student's point of view: http://www.collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=110635 http://www.collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=11... The underlying database is the federal IPEDS database. http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/ http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/ IPEDS has its own database search interface. After edit: What is interesting is that most big name schools don't seem to be putting all of that extra money into bettering undergraduate education. A few of the biggest-name schools pay more for student instruction (by the federal definition) than those same schools charge ANY student for full-list-price tuition (and offer generous need-based financial aid besides). That is perhaps part of what makes those schools so big-name and so hard to gain admission to. http://www.collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=166027 http://www.collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=16...
- tzs 15y ago
  Here's a better list of schools that spend a lot on students: http://www.collegeresults.org/search2d.aspx?sre1=50000&sre2=250000&y=2009 http://www.collegeresults.org/search2d.aspx?sre1=50000&s... It includes a few high spending schools your list misses.
  - quantumhobbit 15y ago
    Cool resource. Some of those figures are impressively high. Do they include things like room and board and fitness centers or just money for instruction?
bagofchips 15y ago
It's true that demand for college degrees has risen, but something needs to be said of government intervention in higher education costs. The labor market in Western Europe is very similar to the one in the United States. As you would expect, you need a college degree and technical skills to get a good job here. Yet, here in Belgium, I am paying less than 1,000 USD per year (tuition + books) to get a full degree at Ghent University, which is the largest university in Belgium. Foreign students from the US/UK pay more in some cases, but it's still a maximum of about 2500 EUR per year for them. We have no one else but our government to thank for our cheap college education (even though Belgium technically does not have a government). It's simply unthinkable here for someone to take out huge student loans and start their life indebted heavily.
- protomyth 15y ago
  Technically, you are paying for your college your entire tax paying life. It just means college is in the same bucket as K-12 is in the US. There is no free or cheap with government, just a different distribution of payers.
  - potatolicious 15y ago
    Sort of, it does get cheaper in some places. When I went through college in Canada a few years ago, the majority of degrees were between $2500-4000 a year. Not quite as affordable as Belgium, but far more affordable than most places in the USA. And then I moved to WA state, where there is no state income tax, only federal, and I figured that this was simply a matter of taxation vs. subsidization. And then I moved to California, where I find that my overall tax rate is as high as it would be for the same income in Canada. So... for the same amount of tax paid, in Canada I'd get health care and heavily subsidized college education for all people, and in CA nobody gets nothing. What's up with that? Where's all this money going?
    - protomyth 15y ago
      Governments sometimes have some very strange priorities. California is spending a lot of cash on salary and pension. It looks like it is going to get a lot worse in CA (lots of unfunded commitments). Its all tax money, it just where the reps vote to spend it. [edit fix autocorrect]

tokenadult 15y ago

What is the actual breakdown of costs for a university? The College Results site is a database from which you can look up what spending there is for student instruction (according to United States federal government reporting definitions) for a variety of colleges from the student's point of view: http://www.collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=110635 http://www.collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=11... The underlying database is the federal IPEDS database. http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/ http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/ IPEDS has its own database search interface. After edit: What is interesting is that most big name schools don't seem to be putting all of that extra money into bettering undergraduate education. A few of the biggest-name schools pay more for student instruction (by the federal definition) than those same schools charge ANY student for full-list-price tuition (and offer generous need-based financial aid besides). That is perhaps part of what makes those schools so big-name and so hard to gain admission to. http://www.collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=166027 http://www.collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=16...

tzs 15y ago
Here's a better list of schools that spend a lot on students: http://www.collegeresults.org/search2d.aspx?sre1=50000&sre2=250000&y=2009 http://www.collegeresults.org/search2d.aspx?sre1=50000&s... It includes a few high spending schools your list misses.
- quantumhobbit 15y ago
  Cool resource. Some of those figures are impressively high. Do they include things like room and board and fitness centers or just money for instruction?

bagofchips 15y ago

It's true that demand for college degrees has risen, but something needs to be said of government intervention in higher education costs. The labor market in Western Europe is very similar to the one in the United States. As you would expect, you need a college degree and technical skills to get a good job here. Yet, here in Belgium, I am paying less than 1,000 USD per year (tuition + books) to get a full degree at Ghent University, which is the largest university in Belgium. Foreign students from the US/UK pay more in some cases, but it's still a maximum of about 2500 EUR per year for them. We have no one else but our government to thank for our cheap college education (even though Belgium technically does not have a government). It's simply unthinkable here for someone to take out huge student loans and start their life indebted heavily.

protomyth 15y ago
Technically, you are paying for your college your entire tax paying life. It just means college is in the same bucket as K-12 is in the US. There is no free or cheap with government, just a different distribution of payers.
- potatolicious 15y ago
  Sort of, it does get cheaper in some places. When I went through college in Canada a few years ago, the majority of degrees were between $2500-4000 a year. Not quite as affordable as Belgium, but far more affordable than most places in the USA. And then I moved to WA state, where there is no state income tax, only federal, and I figured that this was simply a matter of taxation vs. subsidization. And then I moved to California, where I find that my overall tax rate is as high as it would be for the same income in Canada. So... for the same amount of tax paid, in Canada I'd get health care and heavily subsidized college education for all people, and in CA nobody gets nothing. What's up with that? Where's all this money going?
  - protomyth 15y ago
    Governments sometimes have some very strange priorities. California is spending a lot of cash on salary and pension. It looks like it is going to get a lot worse in CA (lots of unfunded commitments). Its all tax money, it just where the reps vote to spend it. [edit fix autocorrect]