<p>What exactly does peer assessment score on US News mean anyways?</p>
<p>From Wikipedia:</p>
<p>'Moreover, 25% of each institution's ranking is based on a peer assessment survey completed by college presidents and administrators. While U.S. News asserts that this "allows the top academics we contact... to account for intangibles such as faculty dedication to teaching", it is unclear what basis college presidents and administrators have for making these assessments for more than a handful of institutions. Analysis of the peer assessment and other aspects of the rankings has revealed a great deal of multicollinearity, meaning that that many of the variables are redundant and simply echo the others rather than contributing independent information to the calculation of alleged institutional quality"</p>
<p>Thanks again for your suggestions, A2Wolves and ckmets. :)</p>