Thomas Sowell’s column today points out the fundamental error of most college-ranking systems: They measure the school’s ability to recruit smart students and raise money, not what students actually gain from attending.

He writes:

A new think tank in Washington is trying to shift the emphasis from inputs to outputs. The Center for College Affordability and Productivity is headed by Professor Richard Vedder, who gives the U.S. News rankings a grade of D. Measuring the inputs, he says, is “roughly equivalent to evaluating a chef based on the ingredients he or she uses.”
His approach is to “review the meal”— that is, the outcome of the education itself.
The CCAP study uses several measures of educational output, including the proportion of a college’s graduates who win awards like the Rhodes Scholarships or who end up listed in Who’s Who in America, as well as the ratings that students give the professors who teach them.
Professor Vedder admits that these are “imperfect” measures of a college’s educational output, but at least they are measures of output instead of input.

It’s a good start; read the article for some of the center’s rankings.