Ranking all colleges is the least useful indicator. This type of ranking will combine liberal arts colleges, public research universities, and universities which have a strongly technical, pre-professional focus. For example, which is “better”
College A: Small liberal arts college with strong emphasis on literature, history, social sciences and has a track record of getting its graduates into grad school and non profit/social justice type jobs.
College B: Large public research university which admits students on a holistic basis, accepts transfer students, and offers a large number of majors. Outcomes are all over the map in terms of what kinds of jobs their graduates take after graduation.
College C: Known for training in a specific field. Think Colorado School of Mines, Embry-Riddle, Cal Maritime. Graduates go into the field for which they have trained after graduation.
How can you tell which one of the above is “better” than another? It depends on what kind of education an individual student is seeking. Ranking by number is completely useless. The data that is gathered is useful however, but you have to look “under the hood” and delve deeper into what in particular is relevant to your student. For example UC Riverside jumped 39 places in the US News rankings in 2019. Did it suddenly become a “better” university overnight? The reason for the jump is that US News decided to place a strong emphasis on social mobility and specifically number of Pell grant students an institution graduates. If you are a family with a Pell student it might well make it a better university, if not it will probably make no difference to you.
It is important to look deeper. If a university has a low four year graduation rate is that because it is hard to register for classes, or is it because they have a strong co-op program where students take longer to graduate because they are getting valuable paid work experience?
Look at the methodology used for the rankings and ask yourself what aspects of it are relevant to your situation instead of being impressed by a number.