Comparative spending
Search and add colleges — or apply a curated preset (Ivy League, Florida SUS, UC System, etc.). Compare what they actually spend money on across the IPEDS functional-expense categories. Each cell leads with dollars per fall-headcount student, with nominal dollars and share of total as secondary context.
Data from IPEDS F1A (public) / F2 (private) filings for fiscal year 2022-23 — the most recent public release with the full functional-expense breakdown. Unlike the Compare fragility page, publics and privates can be mixed here — the two categories with structural F1/F2 asymmetry (Academic Support, Operation & Maintenance of Plant) are simply shown as “—” where not reported.
Curated groups
Selected (1)
| Bucket | MiraCosta College CA · public 11,707 fall HC · FY2023 |
|---|---|
| Total operating expense | $18K/student $208.5M nominal |
Instruction Faculty salaries, benefits, and department operating costs for credit-bearing instruction. | $5K/student 28.3% of total $59.0M nominal |
Research Externally- and internally-funded research activities. Grant-funded labs, research centers, staff scientists. | $0 0.0% of total |
Public Service Extension programs, public broadcasting, community outreach. Big for land-grants (agricultural extension), near-zero for most privates. | $544/student 3.1% of total $6.4M nominal |
Academic Support Libraries, museums, academic computing, curriculum development, deans' offices. Publics don't break this out separately — it's rolled into Instruction and Institutional Support in GASB. | — |
Student Services Admissions, registrar, financial aid administration, career services, counseling, student activities, non-varsity intramural. | $2K/student 8.5% of total $17.8M nominal |
Institutional Support Executive management, HR, finance, legal, IT, general administrative services, PR/development. This is where administrative overhead lives — including enterprise IT. | $2K/student 13.7% of total $28.6M nominal |
Operation & Maintenance Facilities, utilities, custodial, grounds, maintenance. Privates report this inside Institutional Support under FASB. | $2K/student 12.6% of total $26.3M nominal |
Auxiliary Enterprises Housing, dining, bookstore, parking, athletics if separately budgeted. Self-supporting operations that charge users. | $2K/student 8.8% of total $18.3M nominal |
Hospital Services IPEDS 'hospital services' category. At R1s with embedded academic medical centers this is the clinical enterprise. At a small number of institutions without hospitals — NCF is the notable case — this line captures state-required healthcare allocations, student health center operations, or other health expenses that don't fit cleanly into other functional categories. When a small non-medical school shows a non-zero value here, treat it as flagged: check the school's audited financials for what's actually included. | $632/student 3.6% of total $7.4M nominal |
Independent Operations Off-mission operations. Includes major medical centers reported separately (Ohio State Wexner, NYU Langone), JPL at CalTech, APL at Johns Hopkins, etc. | $0 0.0% of total |
Scholarships & Grant Aid Institutional grants and scholarships awarded to students — the discount rate applied to sticker price. | $4K/student 21.4% of total $44.7M nominal |
Other operating Residual operating expenses not fitting the above categories. | $0 0.0% of total |
Highest value in each row highlighted in red. “—” = not reported separately for this control type (publics don’t report Academic Support as a distinct F1A line; privates roll O&M of Plant into Institutional Support under FASB). All values from IPEDS F1A (public) / F2 (private) fiscal-year 2022-23, the most recent public IPEDS release with the full functional-expense breakdown.