This is such a great point. Many young people start out hands on working with children, then advance to policy making positions.
Aside from “learning for the sake of learning” and potential job opportunity in the future, do people consider where one goes schools is a place to meet potential significant other? D1 is marrying someone from her alma mater. I think I read some where that about 28% of married graduates attended the same college as their spouse.
This is a sidebar, but not really. 
^ DH teases D that potentially finding a spouse was one of the reasons D chose Stanford over Wellesley
^and the weather.
Don’t Wellesley women date Harvard and MIT men?
The reality is most kids end up happy and successful at whichever college they choose. Based on my kid’s friends, very few have transferred. Some who have ended up much happier, some just OK. In some cases, they quickly realized they made a mistake or changed majors and the school just did not have much to offer in the new major. Or a kid went to a school to play their sport and ended up hating the coach, the team or the time commitment and left (of course many stay). Others felt lost at a big school or constrained at a tiny one. But those are definitely the minority.
Eyquem: There is no magic answer. There is a choice to be made and all the family can do is make the best decision based on finances and what the school has to offer and not look back. If the kid is miserable, transferring is almost always an option. In some ways, it is like buying a house. There is often a better house if you have more money or can be in a different location or have a different family structure, but you buy the house that seems to make the most sense for the money and situation and make it into your own. Or if not, you move.
It really helps to realize there is no perfect situation. Look at the pros and cons (and especially the money) and make a choice.
In terms of small school vs large school and programs/departments, I personally did want either of my daughters to go to a very small school because I thought that the opportunities for making friends could be limited, neither were interested in big state school frat, sports atmosphere so did not apply to any schools like that. I will say that with my daughters there mix of friends were basically those they lucked out meeting freshman year in their dorms along with those in their major that they interacted with on a daily basis. Both of mine are in the arts so their interactions were intense in terms of theater/chorus performances or art studio life.