We’re seeing this in real time as government funding gets trimmed, cut or slashed, depending on the institution or the source. Some of the “we’re expecting layoffs” chatter is going to cut student services very heavily. A lot of these professionals are not unionized (so easier to trim, other than what might be state and local requirements for a RIF); they aren’t as visible (a college lets go a star professor in CS folks will notice. They let go the Fellowship Advisor in career services, the only folks who notice are the seniors applying for Rhodes and Fulbrights).
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The listed colleges are non-profits. Any college that has a large endowment per student uses endowment investment returns to supplement tuition revenue, often allowing them to spend far more per student than the direct net tuition revenue. Note that after FA, the net tuition revenue per student is often far lower than sticker price. As such, the colleges with the highest endowments per students often have the highest spending per student. These high spending colleges are often the ones called “elite” on the forums.
As an example, the first college you listed as NOT having operating expenses per student above direct cost was Smith. In Smith’s 2025 financial statement, they list the following sources of revenue:
- Endowment Investment Returns – $255M ($88k per student)
- Appropriated Endowment Investment Returns – $134M ($46k per student)
- Tuition, Room & Board, Fees, … . – $129M ($44k per student)
- Gifts / Grants – $35M
- Other – $19M
- TOTAL Operating Revenue – $317M ($109k per student)
And the following expenses:
- Salaries – $134M
- Services, Supplies, … – $77M
- Employee Benefits – $42M
- Depreciation – $30M
- Interest – $17M
- Utilities – $10M
- TOTAL Operating Expenses – $313M ($108k per student)
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