Reply to What’s the educational difference between a highly-rated college and a good one?

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[quote=Anonymous]I'm a tenured professor at a research university (humanities), and have either been a student and/or taught a top SLAC, top private research university, middle ranked researched university, and top public university. The biggest difference for undergraduates is, as everyone says, the commitment of the student body to academics. At a top SLAC, the students are uniformly excellent and care about their work. Students can't hide from professors because classes are small. Relationships with faculty are strong and can last a lifetime. Don't discount this. Peer groups at this age are everything. You will, of course, find excellent students at any college, but they are much more diffuse at larger institutions.
Faculty across the board are pretty strong because the job market in academic stinks. There are very few jobs available, and there are a ton of highly qualified PhDs. However, at the better schools, the faculty tend to be better connected professionally bc they have the funds to go to conferences, take sabbaticals, and publish, so if your child wants to go onto graduate school, having support from a faculty member at a top SLAC or university will help. I don't think this matters as much for law schools as it does for PhD programs.
I'd also argue that at the very tippy top colleges and universities, you may have more diversity because they can afford to accept students need blind. Once you start getting to colleges that offer a lot of merit scholarships, you'll see a heavy concentration of UMC families that fall into the donut hole of financial aid.
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