There are a variety of college ranking schemes. I documented some of the other sources of rankings and recommendations of colleges in a thread on College Confid

There are a variety of college ranking schemes. I documented some of the other sources of rankings and recommendations of colleges in a thread on College Confidential, http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/437362-looking-good-college.html http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection... a place where I've used this screen name I use here for a long time. But even better than my online list (which is alphabetical, removing the implication of a strict rank order of colleges) is the free website by Education Trust called College Results http://collegeresults.org/ http://collegeresults.org/ which lets applicants or their parents dig into lots of data-based comparisons among colleges. http://collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=166027 http://collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=166027 You can decide what outcome measure is important to you, and use that criterion to compare the colleges you are most interested in. People who are smart about shopping for colleges don't limit themselves to the U.S. News rankings, and you don't have to either. AFTER EDIT: Another source of information for informed shoppers is the website of a consulting firm that advises colleges, http://www.maguireassoc.com/ http://www.maguireassoc.com/ telling colleges how to improve their financials and their rankings with tricks like raising list price and then offering phony "merit scholarships" that just bring out-of-pocket cost down to somewhat above the actual spending by the college on student instruction.