<p>4trees,
Personally, I am not a fan of rankings and don’t consider them very much. I think taken as a “group” of schools, however, it gives you a list of well regarded ones. I don’t really care where each school “places” on that list. But you do get a starting point of schools with a reputation for this field and it is useful in that way. The Design Intelligence ranking DOES use input from architecture firms, including their regional rankings. By the way, we also live in a very rural area. 
It so happens that we have quite a number of architects in our little community and many of them have attended the well known arch schools.</p>