<p>I’d put myself somewhere in the middle on this. I care primarily about fit, but some of that potential fit may be reflected somewhat in the ranking. My oldest son is very, very smart. He also does better when he’s pushed to do his best, so for him the best fit is probably schools with a lot of ambitious schools filled with kids who already have the drive and innate ability to get good grades and scores. He applied to schools ranging in rank from 1 to about 65. He ended up turning down the top-ranked school in the country for #24. It’s a better fit for him because it has one of the top ranked computer science programs in the country, but it’s still pretty highly ranked overall. 
He has no regrets.</p>