Those “ Top Smartest” type of college lists are where it’s at.
Some of the fun ways to snag a ranking by USNWR…
National University
Liberal Arts College
Regional University North
Regional University South
Regional University East
Regional University West
Regional College North
Regional College South
Regional College East
Regional College West
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
A-Plus Schools for B Students
Top Public Schools
Top Universities for International Students
Best Colleges for Veterans
Best Undergraduate Teaching
Best Value Schools
Most Innovative Schools
Top Performers on Social Mobility
Business
Accounting
Entrepreneurship
Finance
Insurance
International Business
Management
Management Information Systems
Marketing
Production / Operation Management
Quantitative Analysis
Real Estate
Supply Chain Management / Logistics
** Engineering**
Aerospace /Aeronautical / Astronautical
Biological / Agricultural
Biomedical
Chemical
Civil
Computer
Electrical / Electronic / Communications
Environmental / Environmental Health
Industrial / Manufacturing
Materials
Mechanical
Petroleum
I’m sure there are more lists but I’m tired of slicing and dicing.
Glass half empty ?
I view the specialized rankings as helpful & informative.
Me too. I’m curious why you would think otherwise.
My kid attended Santa Clara University. Up until this year it was either one or two for the western region. It’s now 54 in national universities. I think that’s great.
go Thumper. Starting at #54 is strong. A couple of other Jesuit schools started in the top 100 as well.
btw-in response to the OP: I care as USNews matches my worldview – so it must be correct. 
Michigan is boasting about its rank (in public schools list) so that’s the only reason I knew it came out.
I really could not care less but it is nice to see us fairly high up there in undergrad teaching since I teach undergrads there ?
@homerdog I will say that Elon is pretty pumped about their #2 in Undergrad Teaching! My son is going there, and no, we didn’t look at this list last year LOL and this list hasn’t been a factor in either of my college kids’ decisions (although both of their schools just made it to the National Category so maybe they were never in there before). For me that’s the kind of thing that seems interesting about these rankings…when a surprise or lesser known school pops up.
Ranking entire school is meaningless. Colleges should be ranked by major as no school is the same in ranking in any major.
@Al73 they are. You need to type in the major…and the schools will pop up. It’s easy peasy.
The moves from regional university to national university are definitely interesting. Santa Clara (54), LMU (64) and Gonzaga (79) must be thrilled where they landed. Chapman (125) and Seattle U (139), not so much.
I’m happy for UC-Merced, and admire their mission and success with first gens, URMs, low income students, and others, but 104 seems high for a university with only 24 majors and no visual and performing arts. (Or am I wrong about that . . . I’m just going by the web site.) In time, I believe Merced will be a powerhouse, like the other UC campuses, but at this point it’s a no-frills university, so hard to compare, IMHO, to more established places like Oregon, CU Boulder, Arizona, etc. that have many more majors, programs.
Thumper, that’s good news about Santa Clara. But my own college takes a “thumping” again from USNews. Reed is ranked #68. That takes away from the credibility of USNews.
But note that the much higher ranked Caltech has only 27 majors, none of which are in visual or performing arts.
“Ranking entire school is meaningless. Colleges should be ranked by major as no school is the same in ranking in any major.”
I agree, that’s a great start, but I would slice and dice it beyond even best for each major:
Best colleges for people who don’t know what they want to major in - by region
Best colleges for people who need mental health support - by region
Best colleges for people who love fine arts and who want to participate in them but don’t want to major in them
Best colleges for people not (or are who are) interested in Greek life
etc., etc. etc.
It is possible to get all that information now, of course. However, we seem to get a lot of young students on CC who need a reality smack to get them to look beyond the USNWR top 20 lists.
@ucbalumnus tell me you didn’t go there, comparing Caltech and UCM……… 
Same here. The overall rankings average in a whole bunch of data to determine some kind of “average” or “aggregate” rating, but no one majors in a cross-university average program.
Overall rankings are for administration bragging rights but specialized rankings are what can be at least somewhat useful in school selection.
The example I always use is Embry-Riddle. Are they even ranked? Maybe as a regional school? But one of the top 5 aviation/aero programs in the county. Majoring in aero and overlooking it for “top rated” Brown or Dartmouth - not a good move.
I don’t really care a ton. They are kind of interesting to look at just for fun. But, we didn’t give it any consideration when my kids were applying…
They are ranked #11 in the south region but #4 overall for Aerospace/Aeronautical Engineering. We also paid much more attention to specific major ranks than overall school rank.
If you know you are interested in aeronautical engineering, it’s not hard to find out about Embry-Riddle. If you don’t know you are interested in aeronautical engineering, or whether you are committed to it, Brown or Dartmouth may well be a better choice.
I found them useful in that I became aware of many more good colleges and universities than I previously knew existed. More of a list of colleges to possibly consider than an absolute ranking that one should read as gospel. I’d never heard of Williams as an extreme example.