(This post is only for wasting time)
From US News, Forbes, Princeton Review, ..., those college rankings,
1) Increase the number of visits of websites of those magnazines, (sell more magnazines?)so increase their revenue via advertise.
2) Make people who read those rankings happy or excited, improve life quality of those readers, they don't need pay much money to get excitement, otherwise they need get same amount excitement to go to a theater, order better quality TV channel to watch olympic games, etc.
3) Since people are getting excited, they go to websites like wenxuecity, talk college board, facebook, ... to share their excitement, discuss, argue, etc, the result is that those websites/companies make more money,
4) As those companies make more money, bosses are excited, and employee will get more bonus, increase their happiness, and from those more money, they get more happiness, then, they share the happiness via other website, etc, etc.
5) Conclusion, those college rankings improve people's life quality, and make world better. (?)
