On rankings, there is a great difference in how schools are ranked and the criteria are important. US rankings (like Forbes and USNWR, the most well known) are very different than world rankings. US rankings often focus on the stats of incoming students, the number who return after freshman year, the % who graduate, how much students earn after college. World rankings tend to be more focused on research, and how much professors publish. I don’t think this latter (world rankings) criteria is as helpful for undergraduate students because often the professors who publish the most teach the least. However, if you are returning to your country to work, and employers there pay more attention to world rankings, that’s something to consider.
Some of the LACs with the best reputations in the US, like Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Kenyon, Rhodes, etc., have much lower world rankings because the professors at these schools are more focused on teaching than research, generally speaking. But they have fantastic reputations and offer an outstanding education.
Also, there are many, many excellent schools with fantastic students, professors, staff, and resources. Often people focus on the the Top 50, which are also often dramatically more competitive in admissions than schools with similar academic quality but ranked a little lower. Several of the schools in the Top 20 or so have acceptance rates between 5-10% in regular decision, a few a little lower. Many of the schools ranked 50-200 have acceptance rates between 30-70%. And they are still among the Top 10 Percent of schools in the US.