Whenever I see a website for rankings in a specific subject, they can be quite different to other websites which confuses me more. How much should I look at the rankings and if looking at the rankings, what websites would you recommend?
I would recommend looking at schools based on intended major, geographic location, size, cost, and common data set fit for your stats. You will end up at the right school with those parameters rather than focusing on ranking.
To create rankings, someone is deciding which qualitative and quantitative data to include, and in the case of qualitative data, how to quantify it. So if it’s a ranking of history departments, it might be based on number of classes and number of publications. But if the department is heavily focused on American history and your interest is European history, none of it matters to you.
You have your own list of what matters. Focus on that. Most rankings are issued by someone who has something to sell or some other vested interest in producing them.
Major-specific rankings for undergraduate programs for the most part do not exist in nationally recognized publications. If you believe you have found some, you should check their methodologies carefully.
“How much should I look at rankings?”
Very little.
Rankings are just a number, and a number that is derived in a way that is not necessarily based upon anything that matters to you. The #10 university in the US is probably academically more demanding than the #200 university in the US, but that doesn’t mean that it would be a better fit for you or for most students (and the next ranking might have moved #200 to 100 or to 300).
Which schools do you like best? Which communities feels most comfortable to you? Are some more affordable than others? You are the one who will be living and studying there. You and your family will be the ones paying the cost. So what you think is much more important than any sort of general ranking. If you love and are accepted to #2 and #200 on some ranking with a reasonable, applicable methodology, and can afford both, well, maybe you should go to #2. Otherwise, don’t worry about it. We are lucky to have many, many excellent schools where students can get a world-class education. Good luck!