<p>Oh yeah, I’m guessing you’ve never met a terrible professor before. Just because someone is faculty or has a PhD means nothing in terms of teaching ability. A PhD is a research degree first and foremost. You don’t get a PhD by teaching, you get it by doing projects and writing papers. Therefore, the most you can say about a PhD vs. a grad student from academic achievement perspective is that a PhD is more independent in a lab (I’m speaking of a science PhD obviously) and more knowledgeable in his chosen field/subfield of research. I’m not up on how liberal arts colleges hire professors, but in most basic science departments at many universities the criteria for hiring junior faculty is dominated by publishing record, funding record, whether or not candidates have their own grants, etc. Teaching experience is really just a bonus. The same can be said for getting tenure except teaching performance may be a slightly larger component. </p>
<p>While it may be different at Davidson because faculty do not have grad students or aren’t as focused on research, it may not be true everywhere and it certainly isn’t and to say that grad student is automatically inferior to a PhD is a gross misconception.</p>