Update: The Official Results are Out.
It looks like the US News Law School Rankings may have snuck out a few days early – or at least that’s what some other blawgs are reporting. The Top 20 are listed as follows:
1. Yale
2. Harvard
2. Stanford
4. NYU
5. Columbia
6. Chicago
6. Penn (GO QUAKERS)
8. Michigan
8. UC Berkeley
10. Duke
10. UVA
12. Northwestern
13. Cornell
14. Georgetown
15. UCLA
16. USC
16. Vandy
18. Texas
19. WUSL (GO BEARS)
20. BU
20. Minn
You can read the entire list at the Concurring Opinions blog – but take them with them a grain of salt – the official rankings come out in a few days.
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We all know that the U.S. News methodology is flawed, but what is frequently overlooked is just how damaging the rankings are beyond their simple impact on applicants’ decisions about where to attend. Because admissions officers are frequently judged based on ability to boost their schools in the U.S. news rankings, they make admissions decisions based not on actual applicant merit, but on factors entirely divorced from merit that are instead directly related to U.S. News rankings. For example, admissions officers are frequently hesitant to fully-consider extenuating circumstances when evaluating an applicant’s LSAT score, because even though they may have excellent evidence that the applicant’s score is not indicative of her likelihood of future success, they realize that the applicant’s score will be included in their school’s LSAT statistics, which in turn will contribute to their school’s rankings. The same type of process goes on with GPA. It’s time for the schools to take a stand and withhold their entering-class data.
Ezra Goldschlager
Law School Admissions Consultant