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Generally, rankings go by U.S.News & World Report, which rank them every year.
Reputation is always a big factor and many of the "top" schools that are undergrad are the same for graduate school.
Schools like Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Standford, etc. are the cream of the crop. Admissions standards are often ridiculous and if you graduate one of these, you are , shall we say "golden"
Middle tier schools are well respected schools that maybe don't have the rep of the top schools but are by no means slouches. Many excellent state schools are found here as are schools like St. John's , Villanova, Catholic and Temple U.
Lower tier schools totally vary widely. They range from barely making ABA accreditation to pretty good but not near the other schools in the region. If you rock in terms of gpa or rank at these schools, you'll be fine. But if you pull a 2.0 and barely make it out of a lower tier school, ya may have some employment problems. Some of these schools are smaller and private and can't compete with larger universities for faculty, which is often why they rank low. Also, some are younger, so they haven't even developed a rep yet. Some lower tier schools are ones like Cal Western, CUNY -Queens college, Touro, and University of the Pacific.
Again, these "tiers" don't really mean much to the people who work or attend them. Each school, even the "worst" is full of bright people and great teachers, but rankings are always subjective and the schools with national reps always manage to be in the top 10 or 20. The problem is, employers tend to let these ranking carry great weight and if you are in a desired school, you are desired. Not saying that ya don't deserve success if you make it at a top school, but I AM saying it isn't necessarily fair to be shunned for doing well at an ok school. of course, competition is what this country was built on, and that attitude carries over to education as well.
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