I disagree. The original question was fine, but the OT discussion is often a rehash of the many many USNWR threads that several of the same users have participated (and debated) in. Such conversations are better suited to PMs.
I have not read those so maybe more interesting to me.
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The USNWR rankings discussion pops up on this forum almost every other week (hyperbole).
Reminds me of an argumentative thread on a particular car forum dedicated to one particular marque. The same discussion gets âintroducedâ every month or two and 10,000 posts later nothing is resolved. 
The mods over there tend to let it go, because it âgets butts in seats.â Viewership.
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Replying to the original questionâŠThe main USNWR lists didnât factor into our decisions at all. That said, when S21 gets all his acceptances it could potentially be a factor in breaking a tie between schools he likes equally and that both fit the budget since it adds the element of prestige as a factor, which was largely not part of his process.
We did look at USNWR sub-lists like âbest for undergraduate teachingâ for ideas. And, looked to the Collegexpress majors lists which I liked because they are not ranked but are instead groups of colleges to consider that are IDâd as good for those majors based on Antonoffâs research, input from other higher ed professionals and student suggestions. If he wanted to do IB or some other field where undergrad âprestigeâ was super important, I expect weâd have factored that in more (or Poets & Quants) but since I work in a field related to what DS wants to study I know that itâs not a big factor. Getting the right skills and opportunities for experience while in school is most important and he can do that in a lot of places.
We assembled an initial big list of schools based on ideas from those more targeted types of lists. Assembled data available on USNWR but also Naviance, College Navigator or directly from the schools CDS. Then narrowed down based on high freshman retention rate, high graduation rate, robust program in preferred area of study, likelihood to fit the budget. And, he preferred big schools in a traditional âcollege townâ environment and wanted to be in driving distance. That was plenty of parameters to decide where to apply.
For the most part, when I look at the USNWR lists of âtopâ colleges, they are just completely irrelevant to us. The schools in the top of the list are unaffordable (weâre in that too much money for need aid but canât spend $70K x 2 kids) so it would be a waste of time and energy to even apply. I do not believe any perceived prestige is worth saddling a kid with significant debt for undergrad. Also, the suggestion of a real difference between something like #40 and #50 is IMO misleading. The variations in actual numeric score (based on a questionable approach to weighting) are hardly significant. I think it makes more sense to think in terms of tiers and there are a lot of schools that are functionally equivalent in any given tier. It might be more useful if USNWR provided a tool that let the user set their own weights and provided a list based on what is important to the individual, including a real estimate of cost.
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Here, itâs the same butts in the same seats. 
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The only inference I can draw from my own limited experience in that regard is that reliance on rankings such as USNWR isnât a function of SES, but rather a function of how much time an applicant and his/her family are willing to spend, or can afford to spend, on the college selection process. Educational background of the parents also seem to have some effects.
Quite true, at least among the top-tier firms (also to justify premium fees).
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Yes, the firms in size directly below the Big 4 have always been considered âsecond tierâ firms since I have been working in this industry for 25 years. Itâs not meant as a perjorative term : )
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I donât know how I missed your post the first time around. Thanks for the (at the time, overlooked by me, information).
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Interesting. And a little sad how every survey eventually submits to conventional wisdom- whatever it is.
The statements were taken directly from the current print edition of USNs college guide.
Check out the Revisionist History podcast by Malcolm Gladwell, titled Lord of the Rankings, that was first broadcast in July 2021. Enlightening and entertaining on how the USNWR were developed and how they can be gamed somewhat.
Speaking of Malcolm Gladwell and colleges gaming the USNWR rankings, Iâve linked a couple of his recent blog posts using Columbia and their numbers fudging as examples to illustrate how it is being done (successfully).
https://malcolmgladwell.bulletin.com/columbia-university-web-illusions-us-news-rankings
These are examples of actual misrepresentation and fraud committed solely to influence the USNWR ranking, unlike the oft cited efforts of schools to manage/protect yield and drive down admit rate. The latter actually have some benefit to schools and are not metrics used in the rankings.
While this is a bad look for the schools involved, hoping to drive home the point that itâs also a bad look for USNWR and the validity of its rankings. For those who didnât make it through the posts above, USNWR does not utilize any sort of spot check, audit or validation of the data schools submit to them either. Itâs âTrust, but verifyâ, not âTrust, donât verifyâ.
So for those beholden to the rankings and using them to drive your choices and priorities, it would be prudent use them as simply an additional data point. Use them to help determine gross and directional relationships rather than precise ordinal ranking. And ultimately understand that they are primarily another piece of marketing in the college search. Only this marketing isnât for the schools. Itâs for USNWR.
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Great links to those posts. Thanks for sharing. For those parents obsessed with choosing a college that accepted their student during this admission cycle and more so for those students who may be weighing where to spend the next 4 years of their life based on USNWR ranking, please consider reading Malcolmâs posts before choosing your ultimate destination.
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To us, rankings mattered to the extent that we wanted D22 to pick a school that was in, roughly, the USNews or Wall St Journal top 300 with an overall Niche grade of B+ or better. We also preferred schools with a strong financial grade (B+ or better from Forbes for privates; âthriveâ or âsurviveâ from Dr. Gallowayâs spreadsheet for publics).
In other words â we looked for schools that were better than most. Or in the top half. To me, thatâs a âgoodâ school. We did not focus on schools above any particular threshold on any one ranking system.
I think alums from some selective schools may benefit from the schoolâs widespread name recognition, but that is not because the school is ranked #3 instead of #13 or #23.
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Iâm not a huge fan of Gladwell, far from it (he annoys the hell out of me, to be honest). However, these blog posts are spot on, albeit in an annoying Gladwellian way, and the article that he cites by Michael Thaddeus is an important read.
Agreed. I had to get past the delivery at times as well. Gladwellâs summaries are just easier to digest than the Thaddeus paper.
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