^I was looking at the staff backgrounds of the College Consensus (an obvious take-off on College Confidential) team and it is striking that they all come from the American southwest. So, it might explain such notable omissions as Swarthmore, Hamilton and Amherst. OTOH, Wesleyan almost certainly got a boost from being cross-listed on the “25 Best River and Lake Colleges” (#5)
https://www.collegeconsensus.com/rankings/best-river-colleges/