<p>I guess there is some semblance of a logic here, although it does seem to exist in a worm hole all its own. Schools with an excessive emphasis on breadth at the expense of any kind of depth wind up losing a lot of cross-admits to bigger schools. For example, I don’t know of anyone who would choose Swarthmore over Vassar for Film Studies, even though Swarthmore has evinced its interest in academic breadth by hiring a professor or two. Does that make Swarthmore a “second tier” LAC? I suppose for some people it might.</p>