While high graduate salaries and low loan-default rates are crucial measures of a school’s value, so are less tangible outcomes such as how well students learn to challenge assumptions or whether they can tie abstract academic ideas to real-world applications.

That’s why the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings assign 20% of a school’s total score to engagement, as measured by the breadth of academic options it offers and student insights on things such as whether they feel challenged in the classroom...