This was much tougher to tier. But this is my take, and I'm going to probably make more adjustments as time passes onto the spreadsheet. One thing I'd want to emphasize right away that I missed is that Research Universities have an edge in offering much more specialized research opportunities, which can be favorable for students leaning more towards STEM. Again, there are exceptions! But I would want to establish that point and go from there.

Spreadsheet Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Niche's Liberal Arts Colleges vs Research University differences:
https://www.niche.com/blog/liberalar...

Big Futures College Board link to go over the financial side:
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/