<p>The gross values reported are the historical capitalized value of the buildings—essentially original cost. It includes all capitalizable improvements and capitalized maintenance such as new roofs, renovations, etc. that have been “added” to the building. Of course, a portion of what we report as accumulated depreciation applies to the buildings. Depreciation lives for buildings run from 25 to 40 years and building improvements are typically 10 to 20 years.</p>
<p>Do you still consider this a good comparison measure?</p>
<p>Do you see why this number has nothing to do with “current market value”, assuming such a number could even be accurately estimated?</p>
<p>Do you think that even for new buildings, differences among construction costs per square foot among different cities (due to local building codes, local labor costs and such) make a comparison between institutions difficult, even for new construction?</p>
<p>The new research only building at Wisconsin was fully funded by donations and the state. Now they might get to charge some of it back as overhead on grants but that money will not go to payoff the building but to finance more programs, students, etc. All of the many new buildings on campus used this model. Part private and part state funding. Research money overhead is all reinvested in more programs.</p>
<p>I agree with newmassdad that this is a truly meaningless ranking. The invented parameter of “building (assets) per student” – however it is measured and/or defined by individual schools – has absolutely nothing at all to do with the “quality” of the education being offered, as suggested by the OP.</p>
<p>What is your point? Is this relevant to the discussion or just another chestnut regarding how wonderful Wisconsin is?</p>
<p>I would also think you would be enough of a business person to understand the irrelevance of this statement “Now they might get to charge some of it back as overhead on grants but that money will not go to payoff the building but to finance more programs, students, etc.” because the state could have just as easily let them borrow to build the research building and used its funding to “finance more programs…”</p>
<p>It is also interesting to think about where the state got its money for the building. Borrowing, perhaps? </p>
<p>Truth is, if Wisconsin is a smart steward of your tax $, it would have borrowed for its share of the $, and probably did, because states can get such great rates for its bonds (until the past few months) so it makes fiscal sense to do so. And this cost of money is negotiated into the reimbursement rate from the feds. So not doing so is like leaving money on the table.</p>
<p>If buildings have a 40 depreciation life and building improvements have a 15 year depreciation life, then the figures would indicate new construction, plus recent building remodeling and maintenance. This is a meaningful index of quality (i never said “academic” quality). </p>
<p>How do you explain the great schools that sorted to the top?</p>
<p>Statements that the numbers are “meaningless” reflect a lack of effort to understand what they DO mean.</p>
<p>Here are some actual numbers. Is this just new construction, maintenance, and remodeling? Billions?? I think it represents market value.</p>
<p>Harvard University 5480835000
California Institute of Technology 717564000<br>
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 4163269000
University of Wisconsin-Madison 1951147038</p>
<p>This topic is hardly worth debating anymore, except for the mistatements that keep coming up.</p>
<p>For example, CH, look at your own pevious posts. I don’t think “maintenance” counts in the figures.</p>
<p>And why are they meaningless? Because a 50 year old building not remodeled in 20 years would be carried at zero value, yet be perfectly adequate even today.</p>
<p>Feel free, CH, to draw whatever conclusions you want from data, even if you don’t understand it. And the exercise can even be useful if it leads to intelligent questions and discussions. For example, this discussion and your replies have refreshed some of my understanding of college accounting. And the post has raised some interesting questions, like is it better or worse to have a higher ratio, whether or not the data is very comparable. Does higher just mean newer? Is newer better? and so forth.</p>
<p>Wisconsin also spunoff the entire hospitals and medical research complex into an independent ownership authority with its own bonding authority, etc… Same for several buildings owned by UW related groups like the UW Research Park, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and UW Foundation. Big schools can be very complex. </p>
<p>dollar value of buildings-end of year 2006-07</p>
<p>Could this be just recent construction/renovations?</p>
<p>Harvard University 5480835000
University of Pennsylvania 4190720000
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 4163269000
Yale University 3496973000
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus 3398135000
Ohio State University-Main Campus 3136390684
Stanford University 2902464000
University of Washington-Seattle Campus 2754156304
Columbia University in the City of New York 2741754000
New York University 2674612000
Duke University 2543020000
Princeton University 2111376000
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 2082570340
Johns Hopkins University 2063289000
Washington University in St Louis 2057055000
Boston University 2030739627
University of Wisconsin-Madison 1951147038
Emory University 1949376000
Cornell University 1940037169
University of Iowa 1885768000
Rutgers University-New Brunswick 1856135000
University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus 1828819905
The University of Texas at Austin 1778411575
Vanderbilt University 1736478668
University of Chicago 1728859509
Michigan State University 1726297761
University of Rochester 1662679000
Northwestern University 1653228000
University of Virginia-Main Campus 1626238870
University of Connecticut 1551130347
University of Florida 1510674000
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1431371000
Purdue University-Main Campus 1414873912
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1403065049
Texas A & M University 1398229037
University of Maryland-College Park 1397128190
University of Missouri-Columbia 1391937174
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus 1214210280
University of Miami 1109299162
University of Georgia 1103702038
Case Western Reserve University 1053297254
Georgetown University 1014401000
University of Southern California 1012751000
Brigham Young University 1005722548
The University of Tennessee 997107465
Indiana University-Bloomington 996925831
George Washington University 983488904
University of Delaware 973207000
Syracuse University 966514258
Brown University 916598000
University of Notre Dame 903369000
Iowa State University 885419188
University of Colorado at Boulder 846020889
Boston College 837764411
Yeshiva University 796739551
Dartmouth College 794889533
Carnegie Mellon University 785103963
Tufts University 784906660
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 754431090
Wake Forest University 727945000
California Institute of Technology 717564000
Auburn University Main Campus 710151729
Clemson University 619813670
Tulane University of Louisiana 598974000
Miami University-Oxford 595696930
Baylor University 558322000
Southern Methodist University 516289000
Rice University 497500000
Fordham University 478477200
Saint Louis University-Main Campus 475408053
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 473599000
University of Denver 450700368
Middlebury College 409547000
Williams College 408690007
American University 407934000
SUNY at Binghamton 404299151
Lehigh University 389995000
Smith College 376727377
Marquette University 376095000
Wellesley College 358736000
Brandeis University 348575013
Amherst College 343752840
College of William and Mary 333930383
Colgate University 328786000
Vassar College 315121842
Lafayette College 301791973
Trinity College 295241890
Pomona College 289876000
Pepperdine University 288969000
Bowdoin College 277747000
Wesleyan University 259569000
University of Richmond 258506319
Bucknell University 255391000
Swarthmore College 254671000
Oberlin College 248875257
Washington and Lee University 234351000
DePauw University 222277001
Hamilton College 221847000
Bard College 209903988
Grinnell College 203334000
College of the Holy Cross 201535751
Kenyon College 196418698
Stevens Institute of Technology 191640891
Davidson College 187888483
Furman University 183075389
Colby College 182272000
Gettysburg College 182082567
Denison University 179881370
Skidmore College 177829000
Dickinson College 175983946
Drew University 172780000
Hope College 171575330
Mount Holyoke College 171052222
Haverford College 170772327
Muhlenberg College 170191140
Macalester College 169978000
Barnard College 162446588
Wheaton College 159371997
St Lawrence University 156151446
University of Puget Sound 155257000
Illinois Wesleyan University 154580573
Clark University 152621000
St. Olaf College 149958176
Virginia Military Institute 146542371
Agnes Scott College 140651547
Colorado College 137693346
Rhodes College 135459146
Birmingham Southern College 132636168
Worcester Polytechnic Institute 132373000
Spelman College 131206798
The College of Wooster 130830130
Albion College 127593517
Franklin and Marshall College 127229493
Lawrence University 123476459
Hobart William Smith Colleges 122927437
Ursinus College 121347445
Gustavus Adolphus College 120913816
Wabash College 120081819
Bates College 119236247
Augustana College 119126529
Connecticut College 118041000
Willamette University 117605000
Whitman College 117067974
Sewanee: The University of the South 116992248
Reed College 114502150
Goucher College 113555769
Occidental College 111777479
Allegheny College 111171237
Saint Johns University 105650725
Ohio Wesleyan University 102609108
Wheaton College 102086719
Sarah Lawrence College 97855525
Southwestern University 97146885
University of North Carolina System Office 95045209
Carleton College 92944570
Earlham College 91426470
Wofford College 84000616
Juniata College 81552877
Principia College 80584215
Scripps College 78091886
College of Saint Benedict 76110658
Mills College 75839035
Centre College 74551704
Hanover College 73493381
Austin College 73294755
Kalamazoo College 69786387
Harvey Mudd College 69356202
Hendrix College 67283972
Hollins University 63737979
Sweet Briar College 62029306
Randolph-Macon College 59547694
Wells College 58254339
Presbyterian College 56794869
Claremont McKenna College 56501000
Millsaps College 53271016
Pitzer College 53153268
New College of Florida 50815877
Knox College 49114729
Thomas Aquinas College 43781641
Bennington College 37781093
Beloit College 37264254
Bryn Mawr College 22354431
Union College 20901887
St Mary’s College of Maryland 11061659</p>
<p>net assets of “component units” (whatever they are)
not just buildings but net assets</p>
<p>University of Florida 2600205000
Michigan State University 2518168621
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus 1345774172
University of California-Los Angeles 1299557000
University of California-Berkeley 1064534000
University of Georgia 906815719
University of California-San Diego 508617000
University of California-Irvine 274192000
University of California-Davis 221474000
University of California-Santa Barbara 125552000
University of California-Riverside 97483000
University of California-Santa Cruz 53559000
New College of Florida 38863791
Clemson University 6493508</p>