<p>These data all come from ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■. I understand that east coast schools are in higher cost markets, but I wonder what else is going on </p>
<p>The spending data below are as follow:
The first column is Student Related Expenditures/FTE
The second column is Instructional Expenditures/FTE
The third column is Educational & General Expenditures/FTE
The data definitions are on the site indicated above.
Are these numbers influenced by significan one time expenditure, such as for capital outlay? </p>
<p>Bowdoin---- $35,282-- $18,406-- $44,769
Williams-----$39,910-- $25,551-- $50,406
Wellesley----$33,471-- $24,905-- $53,600
Grinnell------ $31,301- $16,958-- $39,439
Whitman ----$19,562-- $10,768—$25,393</p>
<p>I have numbers for other schools as well.</p>
<p>I should think that Capital expenditures would not be counted here. I don’t do the IPEDs data for our institution, but I can’t imagine that stuff would fall into the categories here.</p>
<p>So what is going on? Why are Student Related Expenditures per student twice as high at Williams than at Whitman? The faculty-to- student ratio at Williams is better than Whitman and I suspect the teachers are paid more, but does this alone explain the difference?</p>
<p>In addition, why are the East Coast schools so much higher than Grinnell and Whitman in terms of Educational & General Expenditures/student? </p>
<p>And what should we take away from these data?</p>
<p>Well, generally speaking, I am not sure how meaningful those numbers are. </p>
<p>But trying to brainstorm some reasons behind the differences…</p>
<p>As you touched upon, East Coast schools have higher costs for instructional staff and faculty because the cost of living is higher.</p>
<p>Some fields have higher instructional costs than others–a school with more science majors, for example, would spend more. </p>
<p>A school which required students to bring their own computers might have fewer expenses than one which didn’t, and instead endeavored to provide a number of student computer labs.</p>
<p>I don’t know, just guessing here.</p>