Is the writing sample page limit exclusive of figures and references, even if the instructions themselves do not say "exclusive of figures and references"?

[mwmwmw121212]

Most of the schools I'm applying to specify that the writing sample should be less than X words, exclusive of references, figures, and tables. Some schools (like Columbia), however, simply say that it should be "no longer than 30 pages." Should I assume that they're implying that this is 30 pages of writing, but that the file can be longer since there are figures and references?

[JPYSD]

A late answer, but I assumed this means that the writing part of the document should not be longer than 30 pages. If references, figures or tables are in between the writing section, then that will count towards the page count. If they are attached as appendixes, just like a bibliography, in the very end, then that will not count.