Most high school students I know are not thinking about jobs at age 17 or 18. They are socially conscious with what their peers in high school think. I hardly knw any high school students who do not pay attention to USNWR; and very few of them are thinking about employers. Nor are they disconnecting USNWR from how employers think.
You are talking about older, mature people in the work force, not high school juniors and seniors, nor even college freshmen.