USNWR and other similar rankings are huge commercial successes because they made many people believe that the college evaluation process can be simplified down to a single number (a college’s position in the rankings), so that they don’t have to do the analysis themselves. Unfortunately for these people, the factors USNWR (and others) have picked for the rankings aren’t necessarily the ones matter to them. Even trickier is how the factors are weighted. These weights ought to be different for different applicants, and various factors may be more important, less important, or unimportant to some applicants. A single number can’t capture this complication, but without it, USNWR (and others) wouldn’t be able to sell their rankings.