Actually, that study (from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2473238 ) is flawed due to the way it sorts schools into tiers:
- Tier 1: selection of private research universities
- Tier 2: selection of private LACs
- Tier 3: selection of public research universities
- Tier 4: all others
Not sure how many people would agree that Harvey Mudd is Tier 4 (since it is not listed in any of the others), or that St. Louis University (Tier 1) is a higher ranking school than all of the Tier 2 and 3 schools, for example. Or that private research > private LAC > public research when comparing the “top N” schools of each type.