higher tier journals at top Universities. The big question is does that make them better teachers than a researcher that publishes in third and fourth tier journals and has less grant writing skill? I've seen some of the best grad students that I've worked with at VT come from undergrad Universities I've never heard of. Of course there is plenty of merit to attending a #10 ranked engineering school compared to #99 but for many majors at the undergrad level it isn't going to matter as much.