<p>I’m not great on the ranks so I use the term fairly loosely. I don’t think academics are following USNWR. But I quickly glanced at a typical ranking and probably we’d look at the top 40 public schools, but it depends on one’s area. If a school is known to us in our field, if someone was able to work with and/or aget a ref. from faculty we know at a given school, get some research experience in that school, we couldn’t care less what its national rank is by the popular press. </p>
<p>To illustrate if I can, one of our best ever students came from U of Utah. One of my best friends is a full professor at Harvard, her undergrad was a small local school with @ so-and-so in the name. At all the schools I’ve been at, we’d be excited to interview students who worked with people in our field we know at U of Illinois, Ohio State, or Arizona State, just to name a few. Thats because in our field, great people happen to be doing great research at those places.</p>