@panda20 These are just my personal rankings which are influenced but not based off of USNWR.
Tier 1: Elite Privates and UCB (MIT, Caltech, CMU, Stanford, UCB)
Tier 1.5: Elite Publics + Strong Privates (UMich, GA Tech, Cornell, UIUC, etc.)
Tier 2: Strong Publics + Solid Privates (UMD, OSU, PSU, UWash, Rennsaeler )
Tier 3: Generic State Flagship (UMass, UDel, U of U, UAlabama)
Tier 4: Secondary State School (UMBC, Wichita State, NDSU)
Tier 5: Barely Accredited (any school below Top 200)
This ranking is mostly based on my own view of prestige/starting salary/connections. You can easily have the job prospects of a tier up just by being in the top 5-10%, and probably two tiers up by being in the 1%, so it’s not like they dictate where you’ll end up after school. The tiers are not filled up evenly; Tier 1 has only those 5 (Looking back at it CMU probably should be moved to 1.5), Tier 1.5 has 10-15 schools, Tier 2 has around 30, Tier 3 has 60, Tier 4 has 90. Honestly once you get past Tier 1.5 the differences get smaller and smaller, which is why the amount of institutions in each tier increases by a lot.