"A few law schools recently announced that they will no longer participate in the data collection process.... However, U.S. News has a responsibility to prospective students to provide comparative information that allows them to assess these institutions.... We will continue to pursue our journalistic mission...."
Says U.S. News, quoted at Taxprof.
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14 comments:
We will continue to pursue our journalistic mission....
Like the blues brothers........we're on a mission from God!!
Having recently evaluated universities for my college bound children, I found the ranking system to be irrelevant for what actually mattered regarding what school to attend. Most of the criteria seemed unrelated to actual student needs and goals like social mobility, Reputation (which is a circular score), Selectivity, and Alumni giving. Faculty stats are also somewhat marginal in value, especially in research schools where the faculty have almost no impact on the student learning, (for undergraduate, at least.) Class size and ratios are helpful, but I question the data.
For law schools, I guess reputation is everything, so that and faculty would matter a lot. Still, with schools being caught gaming the system, it appears that these rankings are less valuable than the rankers would have you believe. The ranking only help the schools by creating demand that they can then use to generate higher rankings.
Maybe schools should be evaluated for learning outcomes. Asses the incoming students and the outgoing students and the school with the largest differential (in the positive direction) wins.
Of course they are going to continue ranking. Not for journalism but because what else do they do anymore?
As they should. The rankings were very helpful (20+ years ago) for my younger son looking for a university with a top undergraduate physics program and later for a graduate program.
US News has not addressed the reason these schools dropped out. So far they have been part of the so-called T14. 14 schools that generally make up the top 14 year after year, even if they move up and down within the group. Lawyers at AMLAW 200 law firms can probably list them from memory. Public law schools have trended down in the group for state budget reasons.
Mean starting salaries have been a large factor in ranking. Ie going higher up in AMLAW 200. T14 law schools have encouraged students to public interest careers and have financially supported students to go that route. During the financial crisis they also helped/employed students who could not get jobs during the crash. US News devalues all this. The top schools find this perverse.
I suspect almost all the T14 schools will follow YLS and perhaps some T25 who consider it a mark of excellence. But below that schools will consider it too risky for their reputation. Although the lower the rankings go the less reliable they become. The rankings are notorious for how up and down they can be when you go below 25. Occasionally crazy up and down.
Perhaps US News should follow the College practice of going regional below a certain point. Law schools are regional below a certain point. Eg If you are a student at a NYS school not T14 (Columbia, NYU, Cornell) you are unlikely to be looking for a job upon graduation outside the tri-state area unless you have special circumstances that were not there back when you accepted offers. A regional ranking would matter more.
Yale, Stanford and Harvard were considered the 3 best schools when I was applying pre-US News. Regardless of what US News does they will remain so (Judge Ho be damned).
Consider the difference between #1 and #5. Who can really say what attributes #1 has that distinguish it from #5? How about #25 and #60? After all, we don't really know what is going on at the schools, do we?
This whole ranking system is ridiculous. And here's a hint: the schools play to the test.
AFAIK teachers unions blocked detailed performance ratings of staff, which resulted in the rise of outside sites such as https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/. Etc. One element of Amazon.com's early success was buyer product ratings (which became gamed and dubious long ago).
Air finds a way to leak out of any hole. Water finds level on its own. Without U.S. News and without cooperation there will be external judgements and there will be competition. Rule of nature.
If the US News ranking is not important then why did Columbia cheat? If Harvard, Yale, and Stanford are not the best then what else would they be doing with their massive tax fee endowments?
I suspect that Michigan, U Texas, Wisconsin, Berkley, etc. faculty are largely from Ivies (and NYU!) so what is it that Ivies have that improves education so much?
I suspect it's all about networking, only accepting the most talented students of each official diversity category, and the fact that elite firms just habitually hire from the big name.
What happened to U Wisc’s ranking after Professor Althouse retired? As a loyal reader I guess it’s declined.
US News ruined American law schools the same way Robert Parker ruined French wine.
T14.
You sunk my battleship.
Who knew that T14 was a thing?
"US News ruined American law schools the same way Robert Parker ruined French wine."
Bingo! Great insight.
They should lower the rankings, especially for undergrad, and buy billboards outside the campus. Yale Law School #12. I feel like their is a house of cards element to these rankings and schools are not going to
If you want a certificate to practice law, figure the cost/benefit..often not worth it since attotneys make less than plumbers.
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