When beginning your search for the perfect college, you may turn to tools such as U.S. News & World Report’s college ranking system. It’s simple enough to use. You select from a drop-down what type of school you are looking for – national, regional, liberal arts. Then U.S. News has a scrollable list of colleges with some bare-bones “at a glance” information, including location, acceptance rate, and tuition & fees.

The top-ranking universities may shift position slightly after each year – this year, in the category of “national colleges,” Princeton is #1, while Harvard is #3. They are wonderful schools with huge endowments and are performing cutting-edge research. They are many students’ dream schools. But what is so different about Princeton and Harvard that they are ranked in this way? Does it mean that Princeton is a better school than Harvard?

The answer isn’t as straightforward as you might think.

When you are looking at ranking systems like this one, it is important to take the rankings with a proverbial grain of salt. Creating a college list is such a personal, subjective process that rankings like this one don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. If you take a look at U.S. News’s methodology, it uses some data that is important for anyone applying to college – such as graduation and retention rates – and other data that is less useful, such as peer-rankings, which act as a sort of “popularity contest.” On top of that, not every school submits the same data. Columbia University announced earlier this year that they wouldn’t supply U.S. News with any undergraduate information.

Rankings such as these are useful in that they can help you weed out the worst of the worst – but when it comes to what school is the best, that answer can’t be found in any list except one of your own making.

The U.S. News & World Reports college ranking system is a good starting point. It is not, however, the be-all, end-all list. It would be foolish to apply to the first 20 results without careful consideration for whether or not these schools actually have programming for your desired major(s) and minor(s), the campus lifestyle you want, or even the political atmosphere you’re looking for.

Use rankings with caution and reserve. They are a launchpad for further research. There are incredible colleges and universities that don’t even crack the top 50, like Rutgers University – New Brunswick and Texas Christian University, or even the top 100, like Quinnipiac University. There are nearly 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States. While the top 20 schools are desirable to many, they are not the best fit for everyone.