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<p>If the rankings did that, then perhaps there would be some justification for their existence. But there is no data that the rankings do any such thing - and indeed, without agreed-upon criteria for “utility for a population,” how could they?</p>
<p>The problem is that the rankings purport to be what they are not (USNWR’s screaming covers, before it went broke, “AMERICA’S BEST COLLEGES”), which induces the lazy and the clueless to make stupid decisions - and some money-hungry college administrators to do every thing they can to feed the frenzy, often to the possible detriment of those whom they nominally exist to serve.</p>