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you've just provided a sterling example of why the IPEDS figures are probably simpler and closer to "apples versus apples" than donning a green eyeshade and poring over individual financial statements. I doubt you could get one CFO in ten that would agree with you that depreciation and interest expense are the same as direct expenditures.
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Closer to the truth? You do realize that the numbers for Wesleyan contain millions of dollars of interest and depreciation masquerading as direct instructional expense, right?
To be fair, the depreciation part is an expense. It's the prorated annual cost of the new phone system the college buys this year or the wireless network. It's just smoothing the cost out over the useful life of the item. The interest is paying for buildings plain and simple. Every college I've looked at is borrowing to build their new science centers because they can borrow the money for less interest than they can earn in endowment returns.
collegehelp:
That won't do it. Not every college lists plant operation expenses. Some, like Swarthmore, include it in
Institutional Support. Others, like Wesleyan, stick a bunch of it in
Instructional Expense,
Academic Support,
Research, etc. You'll never get a clean comparison between schools unless you go with total spending divided by total students.