@theloniusmonk USNews undergrad rankings are nothing but aimless surveys with no data whatsoever, no one is looking at those. if you wanna get an idea of department strength from a USNews ranking you look into their graduate rankings. Also looking at any other major subject ranking out there (Shanghai, THE, QS, USNews global, CWUR) tells the same story. Also i didn’t say that there are no schools that are ranked higher in some subjects than non-HYPSM top 10 schools, but rather that comparing the top 10 schools with the top #11-15 school you generally have more higher ranked departments in the former group. UMich and CMU are not top 15 undergrad schools.