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<p>However, the construction of the tiers starts with the assumption that 40 private RUs > 159 private LACs > public RUs > whatever she did not think of to put in the other tiers. So Syracuse (tier 1) > Amherst (tier 2) > Virginia (tier 3) > Dartmouth (tier 4) in her tiering. Granted, that tiering may reflect popular belief among many in this forum, but even those who think private is always better than public will likely find some issues with her tiering.</p>
<p>If her point was to make claims about selectivity, then she should have arranged the tiers by selectivity, not by public/private or RU/LAC. And then she would have isolated the schools treatment effect from its selection effect by comparing cohorts of students with similar credentials who chose more or less selective schools.</p>