Saturday, February 4, 2023
In Defense of US News Law School Rankings
Kenneth Terrell (Princeton Alumni Weekend), Why College Rankings Are Still Important, If They’re Flawed:
Yale’s recent announcement that it would no longer “participate” in the US News Law School Rankings, despite its place at the top of that list, has renewed the buzz that the era of these annual lists might be coming to an end, especially as 10 other law schools quickly announced that they were no longer they would not cooperate with the publication. These institutions argue that the criteria US News USA impairs its ability to enroll students of color, students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and those who might want to pursue careers in public service. …
I believe that ratings are an important, if imperfect, tool for students and families. …
To improve the education and career outcomes of law school students, particularly those from low-income backgrounds, the first in their families to attend college, students of color, or all of the above, the commitments with a significant change they would be more effective. than the announcements about withdrawing from the rankings.
For example, several studies suggest that removing the LSAT and GRE from the application process would allow law schools to increase diversity in their enrollment. Building and strengthening recruitment pipelines with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions, and other minority-serving institutions would allow law schools to identify talented students and give them a head start in developing the skills needed to succeed in law school. . Offering low-income students free tuition or no student loans up front instead of offering them loan forgiveness options after they’ve racked up debt could encourage more of them to pursue careers in public service.
From an administrative perspective, changes like these could take years to implement. What I can say most immediately is that, based on my experience as editor of the US News education rankings is that the most likely effect of these retirement announcements is a significant increase in viewership of next year’s law school rankings. The debate about the end of rankings ultimately only serves to keep people talking about them.
US news coverage:
Boycott
- Yale Law School Will No Longer Participate in ‘Deeply Flawed’ American News Rankings (November 16, 2022)
- Harvard Joins Yale in No Longer Participation in US News Law School Rankings (November 16, 2022)
- UC-Berkeley is the third top 10 law school to decline to participate in US news rankings (November 17, 2022)
- With Stanford, Columbia, and Georgetown, 6 of T14 Refuse to Participate in US News Law School Rankings (November 19, 2022)
- US News Law School Rankings Are Like Hotel California: You Can Check Out Whenever You Want, But You Can Never Leave (November 19, 2022)
- US News Law School Rankings, ABA Optional LSAT, and Harvard Affirmative Action Supreme Court’s Case (November 21, 2022)
- Why Law Schools Outside of T14 (Like UCLA, Wash U, George Mason, Boston University, Pepperdine) May Refuse to Join the US News Rankings Boycott (November 21, 2022)
- Michigan is 7th T14 law school to decline to participate in US news rankings (November 21, 2022)
- Antitrust Implications of US News Law School Rankings Boycott (November 21, 2022)
- With Duke and Northwestern, Nine of T14 Refuse to Participate in US News Law School Rankings (November 22, 2022)
- Colin Diver: Are US News Rankings Finally Going to Die? (November 22, 2022)
- UCLA is the 10th top 15 law school to decline to participate in US news rankings (November 22, 2022)
- Dan Solove: Slaying The US News Law School Rankings Dragon (November 23, 2022)
- Bill Henderson: The Dollars and Math Behind Yale Law School Withdrawal From US News: ‘Are Caps on Federal Student Loans the Best Way to End Rankings Madness? ‘ (November 23, 2022)
- UC-Irvine First Non-Elite Law School to Join Boycott of US News Rankings (November 24, 2022)
- Chicago and (perhaps) Cornell are the first elite law schools to refuse to join the boycott of US news rankings (November 24, 2022)
- Is this the beginning of the end of US news rankings dominance? (November 25, 2022)
- Penn Considers Whether to Join Ten of Top 15 Law Schools Boycott of US News Rankings (November 26, 2022)
- Law School Admissions Without LSAT, Race, or Rankings (November 26, 2022)
- Here’s why top law schools may be dropping out of US news rankings (November 28, 2022)
- The Yale Law School Elites Revolt (November 28, 2022)
- UC-Davis is the 12th law school (5th in California) to boycott US news rankings (November 29, 2022)
- More Comments on the Boycott of US News Law School Rankings (Part 1) (November 30, 2022)
- Wash U joins Chicago and Cornell in refusing to boycott US News law school rankings (December 1, 2022)
- More Comments on the Boycott of US News Law School Rankings (Part 2) (December 2, 2022)
- With Penn and the University of Washington, 14 law schools do not participate in US news rankings; Georgia is the fourth school to resist the boycott (December 3, 2022)
- George Mason is the fifth law school to reject the boycott of US news ratings. (December 5, 2022)
- The Impact of the US News Ratings Boycott on Individual Law Schools (December 5, 2022)
- NYU is 15th law school (and 12th of top 15) to boycott US news rankings (Dec 5, 2022)
- More Comments on the Boycott of US News Law School Rankings (Part 3) (December 6, 2022)
- US News Law School Rankings Boycott Is A Big Nothing Burger (December 8, 2022)
- A revolution in law school rankings? Hardly. (December 9, 2022)
- Boycott of US News Law School Rankings is an Opportunity to Rethink Legal Education (Dec 10, 2022)
- Virginia is 16th law school (and 13th of top 15) to boycott US news rankings (Dec. 10, 2022)
- Simkovic on boycotting US news ratings (Dec 12, 2022)
- Lower-ranking law school deans join boycott, criticize US news rankings (Dec 13, 2022)
- Dean Of Georgia Law School (1 of 5 Schools Not Publicly Joining Boycott US News Rankings) Has Questions for All 17 Boycotting Schools (Dec 15, 2022)
- New Hampshire is 18th Law School to Boycott US News Rankings (December 16, 2022)
- CLEA Statement on US News Classifications for Clinical Programs (December 17, 2022)
- More Comments on the Boycott of US News Law School Rankings (Part 4) (December 20, 2022)
- With Southwestern, 10% of ABA-accredited law schools are boycotting US news rankings (Dec 20, 2022)
- Cal-Western is the 20th law school to boycott US news rankings (Dec 24, 2022)
- Morrison: AALS should provide law school guide to supplanting US news rankings (Dec 27, 2022)
- Muller: What’s the end game for law schools boycotting US news ratings? (December 28, 2022)
- With UC-SF, St. John’s and Idaho: 23 Schools Are Now Boycotting US News Law School Rankings (January 7, 2023)
- US News Law School Rankings Boycott Scorecard (January 9, 2023)
- Fordham is the 24th law school to boycott US news rankings (January 14, 2023)
- Roger Williams is the 25th law school to boycott US news rankings (January 18, 2023)
- Law School Rankings Revolt Spreads to Medical Schools: #1 Harvard Won’t Submit Data to US News (Jan 18, 2023)
- With Maryland, USF, and South Texas, 28 schools are now boycotting US News Law School Rankings (January 19, 2023)
- US News Law School Rankings Boycott Scorecard (Updated) (January 23, 2023)
- Will the US News law school rankings arms race resume in three years? (January 23, 2023)
- The Clash and US News Law School Rankings: Should I Stay or Should I Go? (January 25, 2023)
- With Gonzaga, Quinnipiac, Rutgers and Seattle, 36 law schools are boycotting US news rankings (January 26, 2023)
- With Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, Tulane and Creighton, 40 law schools are boycotting US news rankings (January 28, 2023)
- WSJ: Rebellion Over US News Ratings Looks Likely to Fail (January 30, 2023)
- Two Perspectives on the Growing Boycott of US News Ratings (Feb 2, 2023)
- In Defense of US News Law School Rankings (February 4, 2023)
US news response to boycott
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2023/02/in-defense-of-the-us-news-law-school-rankings.html
