In two words, very little. Other factors such as the campus visit figure more prominently in students’ enrollment decisions.

When we asked students which sources of information and advice were most influential in their decisions about where to apply, only 12 percent named rankings. Conversely, 65 percent said campus visits were very influential. Other very influential sources cited included parents (39 percent), current students or alumni of a college (33 percent), individual college web sites (26 percent), and print materials from colleges (25 percent). In fact, the rankings were only slightly more influential than guidebooks such as Peterson’s and Barron’s, which ranked near the bottom of influential sources of information.