As the parent of a Yale student, we enjoy our subscription to the Yale Daily News. We feel it helps us to keep in touch with student sentiment about popular issues, informs us about the current mood on campus, and details student opinion on university controversies. Most intelligent people realize that rankings in popular magazines are limited in value.
Companies still pay more to advertise on the TV broadcasts of the World Series Champions.
The winner of the US Open gets more endorsement opportunities than the guy who came in second. People do talk about the most expensive university in the country, deriding the parents paying that tuition, while they forget the name of the school that came in second most expensive by just a few dollars. And yes, everyone remembers the school that is ranked number one each year by the editors of US News. But let's be realistic. It does translate into the possibility of a better applicant pool, perhaps more opportunities for Yale's alums.