For years, the U.S. News & World Report’s law school rankings have held significant influence over the choice of prospective law students. Schools would provide key data, then U.S. News would process it and publish rankings that often placed Yale at the top. However, the publication’s constant methodology tweaks, aimed at providing more movement in the rankings, have increasingly alienated stakeholders, such as Yale, which withdrew from the rankings citing various concerns.
This ongoing turmoil has not gone unnoticed by prospective students who seem to care less and less about these rankings. A recent study titled The Decline & Fall of the US News Rankings by Kentucky Law professor Brian Frye and Indiana Maurer professor Christopher Ryan Jr. delves into these changes. According to their findings, there is a weak to very weak correlation between shifts in a law school’s rank and the following year’s class prestige. In some cases, the changes are negatively correlated, meaning as USNWR rankings go in one direction, student preferences often move in the opposite direction.
The authors suggest that these rankings have simply lost their relevance. Nowadays, prospective students have access to more data and alternative assessments such as Above the Law’s rankings or the Revealed Preferences ranking by Frye and Ryan. Consequently, students can make more informed and customized decisions without relying solely on U.S. News.
This shift leaves law schools in a tricky position. While they publicly criticize these rankings, they privately strive to maximize their positions. But if these rankings are no longer influencing prospective students, the schools might need to reconsider their strategies and priorities. And as some commentators have speculated, perhaps U.S. News & World Report will need to pivot back to its original journalism roots.
For more insights, read the full article on Above the Law.