Data from my experience at Harvard: variability between instructors is very high (probably because many of them got professorships on the basis of their research rather than teaching; the two correlate but with a lot of noise). I’d guess this variance is much greater than institutional variance, though obviously I can’t say for sure.
Also, your phrasing suggested that you thought Harvard had very high-quality teaching. It’s probably good, but I wouldn’t be surprised if most non-research colleges had higher average teaching quality, at least for college-level courses that don’t require deep knowledge of highly advanced material. I’d guess that the advantage of taking classes at Harvard is more in the peer group (see other comment), and maybe the advanced undergrad or grad-level courses where command of the subject matter might vary more. (However, I’ve only ever taken classes at Harvard, so someone who’s transferred in or out would have better info.)
Also, students here weigh instructor quite heavily in their course decisions, at least in the math department where professors switch courses almost every year.
Data from my experience at Harvard: variability between instructors is very high (probably because many of them got professorships on the basis of their research rather than teaching; the two correlate but with a lot of noise). I’d guess this variance is much greater than institutional variance, though obviously I can’t say for sure.
Also, your phrasing suggested that you thought Harvard had very high-quality teaching. It’s probably good, but I wouldn’t be surprised if most non-research colleges had higher average teaching quality, at least for college-level courses that don’t require deep knowledge of highly advanced material. I’d guess that the advantage of taking classes at Harvard is more in the peer group (see other comment), and maybe the advanced undergrad or grad-level courses where command of the subject matter might vary more. (However, I’ve only ever taken classes at Harvard, so someone who’s transferred in or out would have better info.)
Also, students here weigh instructor quite heavily in their course decisions, at least in the math department where professors switch courses almost every year.