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?