Hopping on here because I’ve had similar thoughts on this! I think in general ‘prestige’ is a bit subjective especially since they stopped officially ranking MFA programs in 2012(? I think?), so I find that different people find different programs prestigious for different reasons.
Michener does seem universally prestigious in the same way Iowa is - a very ‘elite’ tier reserved for the well funded, historically significant, with famous alumni and faculty. NWP seems to be very highly regarded though not quite in that ‘elite’ tier, and maybe that’s just due to it being a newer program than Michener? Not as many star author alumni? The smaller stipend? Maybe a combination of these factors.
I personally see NWP among the Syracuses, UVAs, Vanderbilts of the world which are excellent and well regarded programs in their own right. What do I know though, all of these schools rejected me 😂 I will say Michener is my dream program not just because of the lack of teaching requirements (which sounds amazing to me tbh) but also the secondary genre focus requirement which I don’t believe is present for NWP students. They seem to want their students to just write, create, and learn without any other commitments. Given all this, I’m still planning to reapply for both programs next year, as they share faculty and resources, as far as I can tell.