speaking as a as-of-this-year Northeastern CS graduate
the university definitely has done things to improve its rankings over the past ~30 years, some legitimately good (hiring higher quality staff, putting more emphasis on research, building more student accommodations like on campus housing, expanding the co-op program) and also less than savory moves (the NUIn program which admits more freshman students without having to record their statistics in the incoming class record, international campuses to "build the brand"). I think, at least the CS and co-op programs are great, and - minus the cost - is a overall great school. they definitely had the aim of improving the ranking, but in doing that they did improve the quality and size of the school along many important fronts. my read is then that USNews still has use in measuring universities, up to a certain point (say top 50 or top 100)
the university definitely has done things to improve its rankings over the past ~30 years, some legitimately good (hiring higher quality staff, putting more emphasis on research, building more student accommodations like on campus housing, expanding the co-op program) and also less than savory moves (the NUIn program which admits more freshman students without having to record their statistics in the incoming class record, international campuses to "build the brand"). I think, at least the CS and co-op programs are great, and - minus the cost - is a overall great school. they definitely had the aim of improving the ranking, but in doing that they did improve the quality and size of the school along many important fronts. my read is then that USNews still has use in measuring universities, up to a certain point (say top 50 or top 100)