Colby for sure has made a concerted effort to “game” the admissions and ratings process over the last 10 years. As others have said, it seems to be a good, easily top 100 school. It is definitely a rural setting. They just (like some other small LAC colleges) want to have it both ways, higher rankings without the transparency.
It’s a numbers game and with the shrinking population of future college students. The hand writing is on the wall for many small colleges. I personally don’t place a lot of faith in any of the rankings out there. They are a reference point to be taken into consideration while applying to higher education
Colby, with over 13,000 applying last year, 2,000 students enrolled, and over $800 million in endowment, is in no danger of closing any time soon. Look at small colleges with less than $100 million in endowments, which have small shrinking endowments and shrinking enrollment.
Since USNews Rankings are highly correlated with the amount of money a colleges has + the amount of money their students have, they are a rough guide to the financial resources a liberal college has, including the all important endowment. In general, the highest ranked private LACs are not in the danger of being closed. None of their top 50 are in any danger, and very few in their next 50. After that, the numbers start climbing.
Public LACs aren’t dependent on their endowment to survive, so one may safely ignore their USNews rank.