MaineLonghorn makes a good point. These rankings are often pretty meaningless when you look at the actual education a kid is receiving. Sometimes it’s particular departments make a difference. Sometimes it’s just that what these rankings measure isn’t actually that relevant. My younger son was very amused that after having done three different study abroad programs in Arabic, the only kid who was better prepared than he was had gone to the U of Mississippi (which has fabulous language programs). Arabic at Tufts covered way more material than most other schools. It was no wonder he struggled so much. Both my kids got rejections from really great schools, but they ended up fine.