The Forbes survey is always a strange on to me. Hard to believe the Cal Tech (1;3 faculty to student ratio) is below San Diego State University. I think the Forbes survey weighs heavily on number of first time students, so that would help SDSU. They also look at earnings, which is legit. A lot of Cal Tech students are still in grad schools or research. or medical residencies a few years after graduation. Ii remember seeing that their average SAT Math score was 800. Sheldon Cooper may have been one of the few Cal Tech grads who was the first in his family to graduate from college.
I know schools should be ranked on how well they are able to help students who parents do not work for Goldman Sacks become highly productive members of society, but the big name schools do have lots of professors who are leaders in their fields teaching students in small classes.
