Mastodon,
One person from one year doesn’t represent thousands of students/alums. Citing an improbable to generalize is never a good idea.
They are not peers in the sense that one is a major research university and one is like a supersized LAC. They are peers in the sense that Northwestern is just slightly more selective.
FYI, Northwestern has consistently sent teams to the final round of College Fed Challenge and they have a prof as the coach. They have Econ profs that pioneered the highly regarded MMSS program (one of the founding faculty was a Nobel winner in economics), a unique and one of the most rigiorous programs for anyone that wants quantitative training in social sciences in a systematic manner). They also have Kellogg profs that teach Certificate Programs for Undergrads at a deeper (more quantitative) level than they do for the classes with the same titles for MBAs (the pre-reqs for the undergrads are highly quantitative). Don’t generalize that profs at research U don’t care about undergrads.