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Government & Education · NCES IPEDS · Functional expenses

Where the Tuition Goes

Every college that takes a federal aid dollar files an annual ledger with the Education Department: what it spent, function by function. The earnings scorecards never open that ledger. This page does - and reads the education dollar the way a bursar would. Thirty-eight cents of it buys teaching. Fifteen cents buys administration, and that slice has been widening for two decades.

5,837 colleges file the ledger each year
$34,033 core spend per student, per year
15¢ of every core dollar is administration
Full Real figures from NCES IPEDS bulk data · 2002-2022

Entry 01

The education dollar

Per FTE student · $34,033

Take everything the average college spends per student in a year - about $34,033 - and call it one dollar. IPEDS says what each cent was for. Teaching is the biggest single slice, but it is not half. Administration, drawn in violet here and everywhere on this page, takes 15% before a single class meets.

37% Instruction
15% Administration
47% Everything else
One dollar of core spending, split by IPEDS expense function, national average across all Title IV institutions. Every slice is itemized in the ledger below.
FunctionSharePer FTE
Instruction 37% $12,750
Research 14% $4,875
Public service 4% $1,467
Academic support 11% $3,856
Student services 10% $3,241
Administration 15% $5,167
Other core 8% $2,676

Full Shares of core (education & general) spending, all Title IV institutions, IPEDS Finance FY 2021-22.

Entry 02

Where the growth went

Real change per FTE · 2010-2022

Colleges spend more per student than they did a decade ago - but the new money did not go where the catalog says it does. In constant dollars, administration grew +25% per student, roughly 2.2x the pace of instruction. The classroom got the smallest raise of any function on the ledger.

  1. Student services $2,401 to $3,305 / FTE
    +38%
  2. Academic support $3,163 to $4,083 / FTE
    +29%
  3. Administration $4,194 to $5,256 / FTE
    +25%
  4. Research $4,277 to $5,305 / FTE
    +24%
  5. Public service $1,333 to $1,595 / FTE
    +20%
  6. Instruction $12,146 to $13,524 / FTE
    +11%
Change in per-student spending by IPEDS expense function, FY 2010 to FY 2022, constant dollars. Bars share one scale; the longest is the fastest grower.

Full Real per-FTE change by function, IPEDS Finance FY 2010 to FY 2022, deflated to constant 2022 dollars (BLS CPI-U), public + private nonprofit.

Entry 03

The two-decade drift

Share of core spend · 2002-2022

Neither line moves fast, which is exactly why nobody notices. Since 2002 the administration share of the education dollar has climbed from 12.3% to 14.6% and sits near its two-decade high, while instruction's share has drifted back to roughly where it began - 36.9% then, 37.7% now, after a bulge in between it has since given back. The classroom's slice is no larger than it was two decades ago; the front office's is.

Instruction Administration
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 200220062010201420182022 38% Instruction 15% Admin
National instruction and administration shares of core spending, 2002-2022. One axis, one total: what one line gains, the rest of the dollar gives up.

Full Real national shares, public + private nonprofit, IPEDS Finance FY 2002-2022 (the sectors with a consistent functional-expense schema across the span).

Entry 04

The administration map

Admin share of core spend · by state

Roll every college's ledger up to its state and the administrative slice still refuses to average out: about 9.9% of the dollar in New Mexico, 21.9% in Arkansas. Denser violet means more of the state's education dollar goes to running institutions rather than teaching in them.

Alabama: 17.3% administration Alaska: 17.6% administration Arizona: 19.8% administration Colorado: 17.3% administration Florida: 14.7% administration Georgia: 14.7% administration Indiana: 16.8% administration Kansas: 13.2% administration Maine: 16.9% administration Massachusetts: 17.0% administration Minnesota: 19.8% administration New Jersey: 18.0% administration North Carolina: 14.2% administration North Dakota: 11.7% administration Oklahoma: 13.7% administration Pennsylvania: 15.7% administration South Dakota: 16.0% administration Texas: 12.5% administration Wyoming: 17.8% administration Connecticut: 10.9% administration Missouri: 12.1% administration West Virginia: 19.9% administration Illinois: 15.2% administration New Mexico: 9.9% administration Arkansas: 21.9% administration California: 13.6% administration Delaware: 15.5% administration District of Columbia: 19.4% administration Hawaii: 15.9% administration Iowa: 14.5% administration Kentucky: 13.7% administration Maryland: 12.1% administration Michigan: 14.3% administration Mississippi: 18.6% administration Montana: 11.7% administration New Hampshire: 18.3% administration New York: 16.1% administration Ohio: 18.7% administration Oregon: 20.3% administration Tennessee: 17.4% administration Utah: 16.4% administration Virginia: 15.8% administration Washington: 11.0% administration Wisconsin: 13.0% administration Nebraska: 15.0% administration South Carolina: 15.2% administration Idaho: 15.2% administration Nevada: 19.0% administration Vermont: 20.0% administration Louisiana: 16.1% administration Rhode Island: 17.8% administration
Less < 13.5%13.5-15%15-16.5%16.5-18%>= 18% More administration

Administrative share of core spending, dollar-weighted across each state's Title IV institutions. Every state's exact figure is in the table below - the map is the overview, the ledger is the record.

State-by-state figures all 51 rows
StateAdmin shareInstructionPer FTEInstitutions
Arkansas AR 21.9% 34.2% $26,977 79
Oregon OR 20.3% 34.3% $38,788 65
Vermont VT 20.0% 32.9% $44,354 19
West Virginia WV 19.9% 36.2% $20,287 66
Minnesota MN 19.8% 38.2% $24,260 89
Arizona AZ 19.8% 33.5% $21,660 99
District of Columbia DC 19.4% 34.8% $72,729 21
Nevada NV 19.0% 41.7% $24,842 36
Ohio OH 18.7% 49.2% $23,199 270
Mississippi MS 18.6% 36.2% $23,065 51
New Hampshire NH 18.3% 25.6% $18,479 32
New Jersey NJ 18.0% 38.0% $32,049 143
Wyoming WY 17.8% 34.1% $36,854 10
Rhode Island RI 17.8% 39.7% $40,477 20
Alaska AK 17.6% 28.6% $58,028 10
Tennessee TN 17.4% 40.9% $28,971 149
Alabama AL 17.3% 32.0% $26,205 77
Colorado CO 17.3% 38.6% $30,010 85
Massachusetts MA 17.0% 36.9% $59,079 141
Maine ME 16.9% 37.4% $31,813 34
Indiana IN 16.8% 43.4% $26,337 98
Utah UT 16.4% 34.5% $21,108 59
New York NY 16.1% 40.6% $48,115 411
Louisiana LA 16.1% 37.4% $28,479 111
South Dakota SD 16.0% 37.0% $24,744 27
Hawaii HI 15.9% 37.5% $43,343 22
Virginia VA 15.8% 42.1% $25,304 138
Pennsylvania PA 15.7% 37.4% $44,553 288
Delaware DE 15.5% 44.4% $30,512 15
South Carolina SC 15.2% 39.7% $27,755 88
Idaho ID 15.2% 45.4% $16,045 35
Illinois IL 15.2% 40.2% $38,793 240
Nebraska NE 15.0% 39.1% $31,155 40
Georgia GA 14.7% 34.3% $26,335 137
Florida FL 14.7% 37.1% $22,941 320
Iowa IA 14.5% 36.4% $29,868 75
Michigan MI 14.3% 38.2% $34,177 151
North Carolina NC 14.2% 39.5% $34,433 162
Oklahoma OK 13.7% 46.4% $25,290 97
Kentucky KY 13.7% 33.1% $27,775 84
California CA 13.6% 33.7% $41,197 622
Kansas KS 13.2% 37.6% $28,286 72
Wisconsin WI 13.0% 38.0% $34,543 84
Texas TX 12.5% 34.4% $34,776 382
Missouri MO 12.1% 50.0% $39,130 135
Maryland MD 12.1% 34.0% $59,269 77
North Dakota ND 11.7% 36.4% $33,915 25
Montana MT 11.7% 30.5% $30,603 26
Washington WA 11.0% 44.6% $31,741 93
Connecticut CT 10.9% 34.4% $59,639 62
New Mexico NM 9.9% 27.0% $38,913 43

Full Real IPEDS Finance FY 2021-22, dollar-weighted per state across its Title IV institutions.

Entry 05

Rich dollar, poor dollar

Per-FTE spend x admin share · 51 states

If administrative weight were a function of wealth, this cloud would slope. It barely does. Arkansas runs the heaviest front office at 21.9% on one of the leaner budgets, while District of Columbia spends the most per student at $72,729; across all fifty-one the two hardly track. How much of the dollar goes to administration is a choice of structure, not a consequence of the budget's size.

8% 12% 16% 20% 24% $20k$40k$60k national 15% Alabama: 17.3% administration, $26,205 per FTE Alaska: 17.6% administration, $58,028 per FTE Arizona: 19.8% administration, $21,660 per FTE Arkansas: 21.9% administration, $26,977 per FTE California: 13.6% administration, $41,197 per FTE Colorado: 17.3% administration, $30,010 per FTE Connecticut: 10.9% administration, $59,639 per FTE Delaware: 15.5% administration, $30,512 per FTE District of Columbia: 19.4% administration, $72,729 per FTE Florida: 14.7% administration, $22,941 per FTE Georgia: 14.7% administration, $26,335 per FTE Hawaii: 15.9% administration, $43,343 per FTE Idaho: 15.2% administration, $16,045 per FTE Illinois: 15.2% administration, $38,793 per FTE Indiana: 16.8% administration, $26,337 per FTE Iowa: 14.5% administration, $29,868 per FTE Kansas: 13.2% administration, $28,286 per FTE Kentucky: 13.7% administration, $27,775 per FTE Louisiana: 16.1% administration, $28,479 per FTE Maine: 16.9% administration, $31,813 per FTE Maryland: 12.1% administration, $59,269 per FTE Massachusetts: 17.0% administration, $59,079 per FTE Michigan: 14.3% administration, $34,177 per FTE Minnesota: 19.8% administration, $24,260 per FTE Mississippi: 18.6% administration, $23,065 per FTE Missouri: 12.1% administration, $39,130 per FTE Montana: 11.7% administration, $30,603 per FTE Nebraska: 15.0% administration, $31,155 per FTE Nevada: 19.0% administration, $24,842 per FTE New Hampshire: 18.3% administration, $18,479 per FTE New Jersey: 18.0% administration, $32,049 per FTE New Mexico: 9.9% administration, $38,913 per FTE New York: 16.1% administration, $48,115 per FTE North Carolina: 14.2% administration, $34,433 per FTE North Dakota: 11.7% administration, $33,915 per FTE Ohio: 18.7% administration, $23,199 per FTE Oklahoma: 13.7% administration, $25,290 per FTE Oregon: 20.3% administration, $38,788 per FTE Pennsylvania: 15.7% administration, $44,553 per FTE Rhode Island: 17.8% administration, $40,477 per FTE South Carolina: 15.2% administration, $27,755 per FTE South Dakota: 16.0% administration, $24,744 per FTE Tennessee: 17.4% administration, $28,971 per FTE Texas: 12.5% administration, $34,776 per FTE Utah: 16.4% administration, $21,108 per FTE Vermont: 20.0% administration, $44,354 per FTE Virginia: 15.8% administration, $25,304 per FTE Washington: 11.0% administration, $31,741 per FTE West Virginia: 19.9% administration, $20,287 per FTE Wisconsin: 13.0% administration, $34,543 per FTE Wyoming: 17.8% administration, $36,854 per FTE ARCTDCIDNMVT core spend per FTE student admin share of core spend
Each dot is one state (plus DC), rolled up across its Title IV institutions. The violet rule is the national administration share. Exact figures for all 51 are in the administration map's table above.

Full Real IPEDS Finance FY 2021-22, dollar-weighted per state (per-FTE core spend vs administration share).

Entry 06

Who runs lean, who runs heavy

Same dollar · three control types

Ownership shows up in the ledger before anything else does. A for-profit college puts roughly 2.4x the share of its dollar into administration that a public one does, and correspondingly less into the classroom. Each bar below is one whole education dollar, drawn on the same scale - the comparison is the picture.

Public 1,953 colleges · $31,150/FTE
Instruction: 37% Administration: 13% Everything else: 50%
Instruction 37% Administration 13% Everything else 50%
Private nonprofit 1,764 colleges · $49,273/FTE
Instruction: 38% Administration: 17% Everything else: 44%
Instruction 38% Administration 17% Everything else 44%
For-profit 2,120 colleges · $13,053/FTE
Instruction: 31% Administration: 32% Everything else: 37%
Instruction 31% Administration 32% Everything else 37%

Instruction / administration / everything else, as shares of core spending within each control type. The figures under each bar repeat every value, so the violet never has to carry the reading alone.

Full Real IPEDS Finance FY 2021-22, dollar-weighted within each control. Public files on GASB, private nonprofit on FASB, for-profit on a third form - cross-sector reads need care.

Entry 07

The spread behind the average

Institutions by admin share · shared bins

A sector average is an alibi; the distribution is the testimony. The typical public college sits in the teens of cents of administration per dollar and thins above the low twenties. The for-profit distribution spreads far wider and sits heavier: 55% of for-profit institutions are at 20 cents or more, against 39% of publics.

Public 1,953 institutions

0% 20% 40% 19% <88-1212-1616-2020-2525-3030+ admin share, %

Private nonprofit 1,764 institutions

0% 20% 40% 31% <88-1212-1616-2020-2525-3030+ admin share, %

For-profit 2,120 institutions

0% 20% 40% 39% <88-1212-1616-2020-2525-3030+ admin share, %
Share of each sector's institutions by administration band, shared bins and one shared y scale across all three panels. Each panel's tallest band is labeled; every count is in the table.
Counts by band all seven bands
Admin sharePublicPrivate nonprofitFor-profit
under 8% 227 88 404
8-12% 225 69 161
12-16% 369 157 182
16-20% 372 250 207
20-25% 359 374 196
25-30% 183 285 147
30% and up 218 541 823

Full Real institution counts, IPEDS Finance FY 2021-22 (administration as a share of core spending).

Entry 08

The administration-heavy campuses

Ranked by admin share

Twelve of the country's largest colleges, one question: of every dollar spent on the mission, how much runs the institution rather than teaches in it? The list is dominated by big online and for-profit universities - Bryant & Stratton College-Online tops it at 68% on administration, and every campus here spends at least 47%. Each bar reads instruction / administration / everything else, on one scale.

  1. 01
    Bryant & Stratton College-Online Private nonprofit · $7,134/FTE
    68%
  2. 02
    Purdue University Global Public · $8,872/FTE
    54%
  3. 03
    Los Angeles Film School For-profit · $16,180/FTE
    53%
  4. 04
    Capella University For-profit · $12,182/FTE
    53%
  5. 05
    American Public University System For-profit · $6,388/FTE
    51%
  6. 06
    Walden University For-profit · $9,091/FTE
    50%
  7. 07
    United States Air Force Academy Public · $110,581/FTE
    49%
  8. 08
    Post University For-profit · $14,183/FTE
    49%
  9. 09
    Colorado Technical University-Colorado Springs For-profit · $9,018/FTE
    48%
  10. 10
    South College For-profit · $14,922/FTE
    48%
  11. 11
    Columbia Southern University For-profit · $4,264/FTE
    48%
  12. 12
    Franklin University Private nonprofit · $13,460/FTE
    47%

Institutions (5,000+ FTE) ranked by administrative share of core spending. Every share is printed beside its bar; the compare tool below reads any two of these dollar for dollar.

Full Real institutions, IPEDS Finance FY 2021-22, ranked by administration as a share of core spending (large institutions only, 5,000+ FTE and $50M+ total).

Entry 09

The sticker is a fiction

Published vs net price · constant dollars

The other side of the ledger is the bill, and almost nobody pays the one in the brochure. Since 2010, in constant dollars, the private nonprofit sticker rose $2,930 to $45,251 - while the price students actually paid did not follow, falling to $22,749. By 2022 the average private discount had widened to 50 cents on the dollar. The sticker is a pricing instrument - an anchor to discount from - not a cost.

Sticker (published price) Net (average actually paid)

Public 4-year, in-state

$0k $20k $40k $60k 201020162022 Sticker $21,009 Net $13,001

Private nonprofit 4-year

$0k $20k $40k $60k 201020162022 Sticker $45,251 Net $22,749
Published price vs average net price after grant aid, constant 2022 dollars, 2010-2022. Both panels share one y scale; the shaded band between the lines is the average discount.
Year-by-year figures sticker and net, both sectors
YearPublic stickerPublic netPrivate stickerPrivate net
2010 $20,026 $14,613 $42,321 $25,933
2012 $20,799 $15,180 $43,636 $26,214
2014 $21,701 $15,122 $45,253 $26,520
2016 $22,597 $15,291 $47,631 $27,122
2018 $22,774 $14,621 $48,007 $26,129
2020 $22,637 $14,107 $48,680 $25,063
2022 $21,009 $13,001 $45,251 $22,749

Full Real figures: published price from IPEDS IC (in-state tuition+fees + on-campus room/board), average net price after grant aid from IPEDS SFA, 4-year institutions, constant 2022 dollars (BLS CPI-U).

Entry 10 · The comparing room Two dollars, side by side Put any two of the twelve institutions on shared scales and read their education dollars against each other - and against the national average. No JavaScript, like everything else here.

Closing entry

Methodology

Notes on the Data

The figures on this page derive from NCES IPEDS - Finance (F1A/F2/F3), Institutional Characteristics (HD/IC), Student Financial Aid (SFA), 12-month enrollment (EFIA) (FY 2021-22 finance & aid, 2022-23 directory; trend to FY 2002, prices to 2010). IPEDS is the census every college touching federal student aid must file each year. Its Finance component records what an institution spent broken out by function - instruction, research, public service, academic support, student services, institutional support - as shares of core (education and general) spending, and we collapse those functions into a plain three-way frame: teaching, administration, and everything else that keeps the lights on. Core deliberately sets aside the enterprises that are not the teaching mission - auxiliary operations (dorms, dining, bookstores), hospitals, independent operations, and grant aid passed straight through to students - so dorm rent and a teaching hospital do not swamp the classroom. Dollars are normalized per full-time-equivalent student so a 250,000-student system and a 900-student college sit on one axis. "Administration" throughout means the IPEDS institutional support function: executive management, legal, fiscal operations, community relations - the running of the place, as the form defines it.

Where each chart comes from

Entries 01 through 08 read the Finance component alone: the national composition (01), the two-vintage growth comparison in constant dollars (02), the two-decade share series (03, FY 2002-2022), the dollar-weighted state rollups behind the map and the scatter (04, 05), and the control-type splits and distributions (06, 07, 08). The trend and growth series use public and private-nonprofit institutions, whose functional-expense schema is consistent across the whole span; the single-year entries add for-profits too. Growth is deflated to constant 2022 dollars with the BLS CPI-U. Entry 09 steps outside Finance: published prices come from the IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey (in-state tuition and fees plus on-campus room and board) and average net prices from Student Financial Aid, both deflated to constant 2022 dollars. The compare tool (Entry 10) reads the same twelve institutions as Entry 08.

What's real here

Every figure on this page is drawn from real NCES IPEDS bulk data - 5,837 institutions' finance filings for FY 2021-22, joined to the directory (HD) and 12-month enrollment (EFIA) files, with the trend reaching back to FY 2002 and the price series to 2010. The institution names in the leaderboard and compare tool are the real colleges, ranked by their own reported spending; the leaderboard is floored to large institutions (5,000+ FTE, $50M+ in total spending) so the ranking reads on substantial places rather than the overhead noise of tiny or distressed colleges. A few editorial choices are worth naming: shares are of core spending (defined above), the trend and growth series cover public and private-nonprofit institutions for schema consistency, and constant-dollar figures use the BLS CPI-U. The full fetch-and-rebuild recipe is in the repo's HANDOFF.md.

What you're not seeing

Functional accounting is not a morality play. A high "administration" share can mean bloat or simply a small college where fixed overhead spreads over few students; research universities carry low instruction shares because grant-funded research dominates the ledger. IPEDS also splits public (GASB, the F1A form) and private-nonprofit (FASB, F2) reporting on different standards, and for-profit chains file a third way, so cross-sector reads - Entries 06 and 07 especially - need care. The growth figures in Entry 02 depend on the deflator you choose, and the sticker-vs-net gap in Entry 09 averages over students who pay full freight and students who pay nothing. None of this captures where the money comes from - tuition, appropriations, endowment - only where it goes once inside.

Generated 2026-07-10 13:19 UTC

Source: NCES IPEDS - Finance (F1A/F2/F3), Institutional Characteristics (HD/IC), Student Financial Aid (SFA), 12-month enrollment (EFIA)

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