Those U.S News and World Report college rankings lists do matter. At least that's the conclusion of a study by University of Michigan and Notre Dame professors, the Economix blog in The New York Times reports.

The study, by Nicholas A. Bowman, at the University of Notre Dame, and Michael N. Bastedo, at the University of Michigan, "found that moving into the top 50 results in a given year resulted in a 3.6 percent decrease in the acceptance rate of the school the following year," The Times reported. "A jump to the first page of rankings also increased by 2.3 percent the proportion of incoming freshmen the following year who had graduated in the top 10th of their high school classes."

Moving up a spot within the rankings can also help top-tier and national universities the study, published in journal Research in Higher Education, found. "For example, moving up one spot within the top 25 was associated with a 1.4-point increase in SAT scores the next year," The Times said. "For just national universities, moving up one spot was associated with a 2-point increase in average SAT scores."