This Christian Science Monitor article is interesting food for thought. I don’t think that the US News rankings would be my own personal ranking system, but on the other hand, there is certainly a “top tier” of schools. For many of the schools in the top tier, I’m not sure it matters whether you go to, say, #8 instead of #6. It depends on what you’re looking for in a school. And the big, choosier schools will not necessarily get you a better education either. I went to a smaller school and got mentoring attention from my professors that I never would have gotten at the really big schools. But then, the top tier schools give you this flashy school name on your resume. That there is brand name flashiness (perhaps where not always deserved) is not the fault of US News rankings. That’s just how our system works. So I’m mixed about the rankings. As long as they’re taken with a grain of salt, not much harm done. It’d be interesting to see how they would rank Religion programs, which I’ve never seen them do.

Update (05/07/07): See also this article released today by Inside Higher Ed.