@ucbalumnus – I agree, that was what my research showed, that contrary to my spouse’s view that there was significant differences in quality of the expertise of faculty outside the top LACs, the training of the tenure track faculty at T50s, and even T70s, was similar enough not to be a distinguishing factor. My kid said the Knox College Poli Sci class on civil rights he visited was the most amazing class visit he had, breaking a lot of preconceptions
And to @internationalss and others – “teaching quality” means more than just “faculty PH.D. training.” The classroom experience will be affected by faculty training as a teacher as opposed to a researcher – so whether the college invests in development of faculty as teachers – plus other factors like student engagement, and random things like whether the professor’s kid was up all night with a fever so the professor is dragging through the day. For our family, we could put aside worries that our kid wouldn’t have access to a strong education if he went to something “lower ranked.”