Pierre Huguet, who is the CEO of H&C Education, says that many college rankings put too much focus on measuring the prestige of a school vs. its actual performance. In the meantime, rankings of actual programs matter a lot more than overall rankings since they track and compare specific degree programs to one another.

If you want to get a sense of the strength of a specific school, Huguet says you should be sure to look at rankings for specific majors and not just overall rankings.

“You may be surprised by some of the top 10 lists for particular majors,” he says, adding that the best academic programs for you may not all be Ivy League schools.