I'm not sure what the others are seeing, but most of their ranking lists don't seem to rank just sponsored schools. In fact, besides the ads at the top of the pages, I can't see any other signs of sponsored placements. I emailed them and they said most of the schools in any of their rankings don't pay them anything. They make their rankings by using the government supplied data for schools. I emailed them about their scholarship too and it's real. They've been doing it since 2015 with plans to expand. I write for my college newspaper and this site is probably the most legit ranking site I've found for my story. At least they replied to my email!