These spending analyses often devolve into an examination of how many angels can dance on a pin. Restricted funds (at some colleges, a very significant portion of the endowment)- you can’t spend money on more faculty in Fine Arts from a fund set up to support foreign language or nanotechnology. A college with an arboretum which is not adjacent to campus- that benefits the botany majors, but most students will never step foot in the place, and indeed, are surprised to discover (often once they’ve graduated) that it exists. Medical education is expensive; business schools are cheap. Divinity schools are cheap; grad programs in library science and social work are cheap. So comparing average spend-- how does that help?
I find these discussions not as helpful as prospective parents want them to be. And yes, the disclaimer “you should research whether the spending is in areas which will benefit your own kid”. But then why bother comparing apples to kiwis to bananas in the first place? These averages really don’t tell you much.
And then the entire bucket of capital spending… a public U which uses bond funding for construction of new dorms or a stadium vs. a private U which gets a multi-year gift of $50 million for a new dorm- which is “better”? Does it matter?