On Monday, U.S. News & World Report released their 2023 Best Colleges rankings. Like any other ranking system, these rankings are a little bit of an art and a little bit science. For some of their rankings, like their most innovative colleges rankings, the ranking is determined by votes from leaders at colleges around the country. For others, like the overall rankings, the rankings are a combination of “reputation” (as determined by other college leaders), graduation and retention rates, social mobility, student-faculty ratio, average class size, professor compensation, test scores of incoming classes, how much money the college has, alumni giving and the percent of graduates who have debt.