BusinessWeek has employed student surveys for its MBA rankings. They have done this for a while. Their other major input is employer ratings (since they are recruiting and hiring from these schools). I doubt that is possible to do any survey without getting some noise and distortion (e.g. MBA students might give high marks because they realize it will impact the perceived value of their degree, not because they really believe it).
@tk21769 I didn’t run all LACs since I was focusing on National Universities. The ones I did look at (Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, W&L, Midd, Kenyon, etc.) all rated at or near the top compared to national universities. If I have time, I’ll look at a broader set.
I’ve always senses some differences in undergraduate focus between top schools and I thought it was interesting that the Niche results tracked relatively closely to my perception. However, I think you are right that the sample sizes for a number of schools in Niche are too small. Some, like Berkeley, UCLA, etc. do seem to have enough.