If those rankings you refer to are USN&WR, I would take them with a grain of salt. I would look into the particular discipline your son/daughter plans to study, and compare the programs (perhaps I missed the particular discipline of intended study), their research prowess, and other issues. We had to adjust from looking at the ranking of the overall university to looking at the strength of our son’s area of planned study for each school, otherwise, we would not have been making the best decision. For engineering overall, it may not make a big difference, but factors such as a strong co-op program and job placement make a difference too.