Thursday, March 23, 2023
Law School Deans See Through The U.S. News Rankings Bluster
William M. Treanor (Dean, Georgetown), U.S. News and World Report Has a New, Aggressive Defense of Its Rankings. Law School Deans Like Me See It for What It Is.:
Since 1987, U.S. News & World Report has been ranking law schools. While the law school rankings have been criticized for decades, this year more than 40 law schools have announced they will not participate, and earlier this month, representatives of more than 100 law schools attended a conference to discuss a solution, hosted by Harvard and Yale law schools (the first schools to pull out), and featuring Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.
In anticipation of the Harvard-Yale conference, U.S. News, which had been relatively quiet in the face of past criticism, responded ferociously, running a full-page ad in the Boston Globe and a Wall Street Journal op-ed defending the ranking system. In the op-ed, U.S. News’ executive chairman and CEO Eric J. Gertler suggested that law schools were withdrawing from U.S. News because, in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s possible invalidation of affirmative action in admissions, they want to be able to ignore grades and standardized test scores in admitting students, without suffering a drop in their U.S. News ranking.
March 23, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
WSJ: The Unraveling Of The U.S. News Rankings
Wall Street Journal, The Unraveling of the U.S. News College Rankings:
Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken floated the idea past a small circle of colleagues. She had a sleepless night and queasy morning. And then, on Nov. 16, she started the revolt.
“The U.S. News rankings are profoundly flawed,” Ms. Gerken said in a letter that day. And with that, Yale Law pulled out.
Within three months, more than 40 law schools—about 20% of the programs that U.S. News ranks—said they would also end their cooperation and no longer share data with the publication, including 12 of the top 14. A wave of medical schools, led by No. 1 Harvard Medical School, followed. At the undergraduate level, the Rhode Island School of Design (No. 3 among regional universities in the North) and Colorado College (No. 27 in the latest measure of national liberal-arts colleges) withdrew last month.
The rebellion, which has thrown into tumult the most famous source of college rankings for generations of would-be students, was decades in the making.
March 22, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings
U.S. News & World Report has announced that the new 2024 law school rankings will be publicly released on Tuesday, April 18 (law schools will receive an embargoed copy on Tuesday, April 11). Here is my coverage of the current 2023 law school rankings:
-
Pepperdine’s Place In The 2023 U.S. News Law School Rankings (Mar. 29, 2022)
- Amanda Runyon (Pennsylvania), Leslie Street (William & Mary), & Amanda Watson (Houston), U.S. News Rankings Get it Right On Law Libraries (Mar. 31, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Tax Rankings (Mar. 30, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings (Mar. 31, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Clinical Training Rankings (Apr. 1, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings (Apr. 2, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings (Apr. 4, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings (Apr. 5, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings (Apr. 6, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings (Apr. 7, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings (Apr. 8, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings (Apr. 9, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News International Law Rankings (Apr. 11, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings (Apr. 12, 2021)
- 2023 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings (Apr. 13, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings (Apr. 14, 2022)
- 2023 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings v. Overall Rankings (Apr. 15, 2022)
March 21, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Thursday, March 16, 2023
Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Ultimate Bar Passage
Following up on my previous posts:
- Summary Of Changes To The Forthcoming U.S. News Law School Rankings
- Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Admissions
- Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Employment
- Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: First-Time Bar Passage
The current 2023 methodology year does not include 2018 ultimate 2-year bar passage results. On several occasions, U.S. News has said it would likely add ultimate 2-year bar passage data to its law school rankings, but has not said whether they will include 2019 ultimate 2-year bar passage results in the forthcoming spring 2023 rankings.
Below are two 2019 ultimate 2-year bar passage rankings. The first is a simple ranking using the pass rate. The second uses Z-scores to better approximate the U.S. News methodology.
|
Law School |
Pass Rate | Pass Rate (Including Diploma Privilege) | |
| 1 | Belmont | 100.00% | 100.00% |
| 1 | Marquette | 100.00% | 100.00% |
| 3 | UC-Berkeley | 99.69% | 99.69% |
| 4 | Duke | 99.54% | 99.54% |
| 5 | Chicago | 99.49% | 99.49% |
| 6 | George Mason | 99.36% | 99.36% |
| 7 | Virginia | 99.30% | 99.30% |
| 8 | Baylor | 99.29% | 99.29% |
| 9 | Harvard | 99.29% | 99.29% |
| 10 | Alabama | 99.21% | 99.21% |
| 11 | Yale | 99.04% | 99.04% |
| 12 | Stanford | 98.88% | 98.88% |
| 13 | Minnesota | 98.69% | 98.69% |
| 13 | Northwestern | 98.69% | 98.69% |
| 15 | Michigan | 98.34% | 98.34% |
| 16 | Campbell | 98.13% | 98.13% |
| 17 | NYU | 98.11% | 98.11% |
| 18 | UCLA | 98.08% | 98.09% |
| 19 | Liberty | 98.04% | 98.04% |
| 20 | Penn | 97.97% | 97.97% |
| 21 | Cornell | 97.93% | 97.93% |
| 22 | Ohio Northern | 97.87% | 97.87% |
| 23 | UC-Irvine | 97.86% | 97.86% |
| 24 | Georgia State | 97.85% | 97.85% |
| 25 | Florida | 97.83% | 97.83% |
| 26 | Boston Univ. | 97.61% | 97.61% |
| 27 | Notre Dame | 97.37% | 97.37% |
| 28 | Washington Univ. | 97.30% | 97.30% |
| 29 | Texas | 97.29% | 97.29% |
| 30 | Boston College | 97.20% | 97.20% |
| 30 | Washington & Lee | 97.20% | 97.20% |
| 32 | Florida Int'l | 97.16% | 97.16% |
| 33 | Oklahoma | 97.09% | 97.09% |
| 34 | Vanderbilt | 97.06% | 97.06% |
| 35 | Illinois | 96.72% | 96.72% |
| 36 | Fordham | 96.71% | 96.71% |
| 37 | Texas A&M | 96.69% | 96.69% |
| 38 | Georgia | 96.67% | 96.69% |
| 39 | Georgetown | 96.43% | 96.43% |
| 40 | New Mexico | 96.30% | 96.30% |
| 41 | Utah | 96.20% | 96.20% |
| 42 | Cardozo | 96.04% | 96.04% |
| 43 | Colorado | 95.95% | 96.05% |
| 44 | Florida State | 95.88% | 95.88% |
| 45 | William & Mary | 95.81% | 95.81% |
| 46 | Kansas | 95.74% | 95.74% |
| 47 | Montana | 95.65% | 95.65% |
| 48 | Samford | 95.59% | 95.59% |
| 49 | Columbia | 95.58% | 95.58% |
| 50 | George Washington | 95.46% | 95.46% |
March 16, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: First-Time Bar Passage
Following up on my previous posts:
- Summary Of Changes To The Forthcoming U.S. News Law School Rankings
- Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Admissions
- Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Employment
The current 2023 methodology for the 2020 calendar year is:
Bar passage rate (0.03, previously 0.0225): U.S. News revamped its treatment of bar passage rates to incorporate all graduates who took the bar for the first time. Computations were further modified to de-emphasize the impact of geography on law schools' relative performance.
Specifically, the bar passage rate indicator scored schools on their 2020 first-time test takers' weighted bar passage rates among all jurisdictions (states), then added or subtracted the percentage point difference between those rates and the weighted state average among ABA accredited schools' first-time test takers in the corresponding jurisdictions in 2020. This meant schools that performed best on this ranking factor graduated students whose bar passage rates were both higher than most schools overall, and higher compared with what was typical among graduates who took the bar in corresponding jurisdictions.
For example, if a law school graduated 100 students who first took the bar exam — and 88 took the Florida exam, 10 the Georgia exam and two the South Carolina exam — the school's weighted average rate would use pass rate results that were weighted 88% Florida, 10% Georgia and 2% South Carolina. This computation would then be compared with an index of these jurisdictions' average pass rates — also weighted 88-10-2. (For privacy, school profiles on usnews.com only display bar passage data for jurisdictions with at least 10 test-takers.) Both weighted averages included any graduates who passed the bar with diploma privilege. Diploma privilege is a method for J.D. graduates to be admitted to a state bar and allowed to practice law in that state without taking that state's actual bar examination. Diploma privilege is generally based on attending and graduating from a law school in that state with the diploma privilege.
In previous editions, U.S. News divided each school's first-time bar passage rate in its single jurisdiction with the most test-takers by the average for that lone jurisdiction. This approach effectively excluded many law schools' graduates who took the bar. Dividing by the state average also meant the location of a law school impacted its quotient as much as its graduates' bar passage rate itself. The new arithmetic accounts for average passage rates across all applicable jurisdictions as proxy for each exam's difficulty and reflects that passing the bar is a critical outcome measure in itself.
Below are two first time bar passage rankings. The first is a ranking by the school pass rate for the 2021 calendar year plus the total difference between the school pass rate and the average state pass rate as reported by the ABA. The second uses Z-scores to better approximate the U.S. News methodology.
|
School |
School Pass Rate | Average State Pass Rate | Total Difference | School Pass Rate Plus Total Difference | Pass Rate Including Diploma Privilege | |
| 1 | UC-San Francisco* | 81.72% | 77.05% | 81.72% | 163.44% | 81.72% |
| 2 | Missouri-Kansas City* | 74.78% | 81.76% | 74.78% | 149.56% | 74.78% |
| 3 | Montana | 100.00% | 79.94% | 20.06% | 120.06% | 80.60% |
| 4 | Harvard | 99.44% | 82.04% | 17.40% | 116.84% | 99.44% |
| 5 | Chicago | 97.75% | 79.05% | 18.70% | 116.45% | 90.99% |
| 6 | Yale | 98.14% | 80.69% | 17.45% | 115.59% | 98.14% |
| 7 | Michigan | 97.18% | 79.79% | 17.39% | 114.57% | 97.18% |
| 8 | Stanford | 97.08% | 79.73% | 17.35% | 114.43% | 97.66% |
| 9 | Duke | 97.21% | 80.67% | 16.54% | 113.75% | 97.21% |
| 10 | NYU | 98.70% | 84.24% | 14.46% | 113.16% | 98.70% |
| 11 | Kansas | 95.92% | 78.83% | 17.09% | 113.01% | 95.92% |
| 12 | USC | 95.00% | 77.59% | 17.41% | 112.41% | 95.80% |
| 13 | Vanderbilt | 95.15% | 78.02% | 17.13% | 112.28% | 95.15% |
| 14 | Minnesota | 95.67% | 79.40% | 16.27% | 111.94% | 95.67% |
| 15 | UC-Berkeley | 94.95% | 78.14% | 16.81% | 111.76% | 95.25% |
| 16 | Penn | 96.46% | 81.50% | 14.96% | 111.42% | 96.46% |
| 17 | Texas | 94.61% | 77.95% | 16.66% | 111.27% | 83.88% |
| 18 | Northwestern | 95.05% | 79.00% | 16.05% | 111.10% | 95.05% |
| 19 | BYU | 96.15% | 82.50% | 13.65% | 109.80% | 96.15% |
| 20 | Virginia | 94.82% | 79.90% | 14.92% | 109.74% | 94.82% |
| 21 | Georgia | 93.75% | 77.79% | 15.96% | 109.71% | 93.75% |
| 22 | UCLA | 93.84% | 78.01% | 15.83% | 109.67% | 93.84% |
| 23 | William & Mary | 93.82% | 78.66% | 15.16% | 108.98% | 93.82% |
| 24 | Columbia | 96.52% | 84.22% | 12.30% | 108.82% | 96.52% |
| 25 | Texas A&M | 92.98% | 77.57% | 15.41% | 108.39% | 92.98% |
| 26 | Ohio State | 93.71% | 79.18% | 14.53% | 108.24% | 93.71% |
| 27 | Boston College | 94.06% | 80.65% | 13.41% | 107.47% | 94.06% |
| 28 | Seton Hall | 89.60% | 71.89% | 17.71% | 107.31% | 89.60% |
| 29 | Wake Forest* | 94.27% | 78.63% | 12.64% | 106.91% | 94.27% |
| 30 | Boston Univ. | 93.53% | 80.29% | 13.24% | 106.77% | 93.53% |
| 31 | George Washington | 93.46% | 80.50% | 12.96% | 106.42% | 93.46% |
| 32 | Georgetown | 93.23% | 80.62% | 12.61% | 105.84% | 93.23% |
| 33 | Notre Dame | 91.67% | 77.82% | 13.85% | 105.52% | 91.67% |
| 34 | Oklahoma | 91.72% | 78.13% | 13.59% | 105.31% | 91.72% |
| 35 | Belmont | 88.54% | 71.87% | 16.67% | 105.21% | 88.54% |
| 36 | Tennessee | 88.50% | 72.57% | 15.93% | 104.43% | 88.50% |
| 37 | Emory | 91.79% | 79.37% | 12.42% | 104.21% | 92.16% |
| 38 | Washington Univ. | 91.63% | 79.26% | 12.37% | 104.00% | 91.63% |
| 39 | Florida Int'l | 86.72% | 69.91% | 16.81% | 103.53% | 86.71% |
| 40 | George Mason | 90.62% | 78.54% | 12.08% | 102.70% | 90.63% |
| 41 | Wisconsin | 90.00% | 77.46% | 12.54% | 102.54% | 99.61% |
| 42 | Univ. of Washington | 92.21% | 82.05% | 10.16% | 102.37% | 90.97% |
| 43 | Fordham | 93.74% | 85.33% | 8.41% | 102.15% | 93.73% |
| 44 | Penn State-Univ. Park | 89.74% | 77.68% | 12.06% | 101.80% | 89.74% |
| 45 | Villanova | 88.24% | 74.74% | 13.50% | 101.74% | 88.24% |
| 46 | Indiana (Maurer) | 89.61% | 77.73% | 11.88% | 101.49% | 89.61% |
| 47 | Cornell | 92.23% | 83.03% | 9.20% | 101.43% | 92.23% |
| 48 | Texas Tech | 88.96% | 77.39% | 11.57% | 100.53% | 88.97% |
| 49 | Liberty | 88.33% | 76.60% | 11.73% | 100.06% | 93.81% |
| 50 | UC-Irvine | 88.72% | 77.39% | 11.33% | 100.05% | 88.73% |
March 15, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
March Madness Law School Bracket: Duke, Northwestern, Texas, Virginia in Final Four
Here is the March Madness Law School Bracket, with outcomes determined by the 2023 U.S. News Law School Rankings (using academic peer reputation as the tiebreaker). The Final Four are Virginia (8), Duke (11), Northwestern (13), and Texas (17), with Virginia beating Northwestern in the championship game.
March 14, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Employment
Following up on my previous posts:
- Summary Of Changes To The Forthcoming U.S. News Law School Rankings
- Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Admissions
The current 2023 methodology for the Class of 2020 is:
Employment rates for 2020 graduates 10 months after graduation (0.14) and at graduation (0.04): For both ranking factors, schools received maximum credit when their J.D. graduates — in alignment with ABA reporting rules — obtained long-term jobs that were full time, not funded by the law school, and where a J.D. degree was an advantage or bar passage was required. In contrast, jobs that were some combination of short term, part time, funded by the law school and/or did not require bar passage received less credit by varying amounts, determined by the combination. For a more detailed explanation, see Notes on Employment Rates, below [at the bottom of this post].
U.S. News has announced that it will not use employment rates at graduation in the forthcoming 2024 rankings for the Class of 2021 because that data is not collected by the ABA. U.S. News plans to give greater weight to student outcomes, so employment rates ten months after graduation presumably will be weighted more than 14%.
Below are two previews of the 2024 employment rankings. As noted below, U.S. News does not reveal the weights it gives to the 45 different job types, employment statuses, and durations. The first is a simple ranking for the Class of 2021, showing both the former 2023 methodology (including full-time, long-term bar passage required or JD-advantaged jobs, but excluding school-funded jobs and pursuit of a graduate law degree) and the new 2024 methodology (including school-funded jobs and pursuit of a graduate law degree). The second uses Z-scores to better approximate the 2024 U.S. News methodology.
| 2023 Methodology | 2024 Methodology | ||||||
| School | BPR & JD Adv | Rank | BPR & JD Adv | Funded BPR & JD Adv | Graduate Studies | BPR & JD Adv, Funded, Graduate | Rank |
| Penn | 93.0% | 24 | 93.0% | 5.8% | 0.4% | 99.2% | 1 |
| Duke | 96.8% | 2 | 96.8% | 1.6% | 0.8% | 99.2% | 2 |
| Chicago | 95.3% | 7 | 95.3% | 2.8% | 0.9% | 99.1% | 3 |
| NYU | 93.3% | 22 | 93.3% | 4.5% | 0.6% | 98.5% | 4 |
| Wake Forest | 96.5% | 3 | 96.5% | 0.0% | 1.7% | 98.3% | 5 |
| Northwestern | 94.1% | 15 | 94.1% | 2.9% | 0.7% | 97.8% | 6 |
| Columbia | 96.3% | 4 | 96.3% | 1.1% | 0.2% | 97.6% | 7 |
| Virginia | 93.4% | 21 | 93.4% | 3.8% | 0.3% | 97.5% | 8 |
| UC-Berkeley | 90.2% | 40 | 90.2% | 4.9% | 2.1% | 97.2% | 9 |
| Georgia | 97.0% | 1 | 97.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 97.0% | 10 |
| USC | 95.3% | 6 | 95.3% | 1.0% | 0.5% | 96.9% | 11 |
| Yale | 79.8% | 136 | 79.8% | 13.8% | 3.2% | 96.8% | 12 |
| Texas A&M | 94.7% | 10 | 94.7% | 0.0% | 1.8% | 96.4% | 13 |
| North Carolina | 94.7% | 9 | 94.7% | 0.0% | 1.4% | 96.2% | 14 |
| Kansas | 94.9% | 8 | 94.9% | 0.0% | 1.0% | 95.9% | 15 |
| Cornell | 94.3% | 14 | 94.3% | 1.6% | 0.0% | 95.9% | 16 |
| Stanford | 87.0% | 76 | 87.0% | 6.0% | 2.7% | 95.7% | 17 |
| UCLA | 91.5% | 31 | 91.5% | 3.5% | 0.6% | 95.6% | 18 |
| Michigan | 93.1% | 23 | 93.1% | 1.7% | 0.8% | 95.6% | 19 |
| SMU | 92.7% | 25 | 92.7% | 0.0% | 2.7% | 95.5% | 20 |
| Texas Tech | 95.4% | 5 | 95.4% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 95.4% | 21 |
| Florida | 90.7% | 35 | 90.7% | 0.0% | 4.5% | 95.2% | 22 |
| Arizona State | 94.6% | 11 | 94.6% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 95.0% | 23 |
| Ohio State | 94.4% | 13 | 94.4% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 94.9% | 24 |
| Villanova | 93.7% | 18 | 93.7% | 0.0% | 1.1% | 94.9% | 25 |
| Kentucky | 94.0% | 17 | 94.0% | 0.0% | 0.8% | 94.7% | 26 |
| Washington Univ. | 94.6% | 12 | 94.6% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 94.6% | 27 |
| Fordham | 94.1% | 16 | 94.1% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 94.6% | 28 |
| Wayne State | 93.7% | 19 | 93.7% | 0.0% | 0.8% | 94.4% | 29 |
| Utah | 92.0% | 28 | 92.0% | 0.0% | 2.3% | 94.3% | 30 |
| Harvard | 88.0% | 64 | 88.0% | 4.7% | 1.5% | 94.3% | 31 |
| Oklahoma | 93.6% | 20 | 93.6% | 0.0% | 0.6% | 94.2% | 32 |
| Vanderbilt | 92.7% | 26 | 92.7% | 1.0% | 0.0% | 93.8% | 33 |
| Stetson | 89.7% | 49 | 89.7% | 0.0% | 3.8% | 93.5% | 34 |
| Illinois | 90.2% | 41 | 90.2% | 0.8% | 2.5% | 93.4% | 35 |
| Minnesota | 92.0% | 29 | 92.0% | 0.4% | 0.9% | 93.4% | 36 |
| BYU | 85.7% | 87 | 85.7% | 5.7% | 1.9% | 93.3% | 37 |
| Washington & Lee | 89.8% | 46 | 89.8% | 0.8% | 2.5% | 93.2% | 38 |
| Georgetown | 89.7% | 48 | 89.7% | 3.0% | 0.4% | 93.2% | 39 |
| Texas | 92.0% | 30 | 92.0% | 1.1% | 0.0% | 93.1% | 40 |
| Montana | 90.1% | 42 | 90.1% | 0.0% | 2.8% | 93.0% | 41 |
| Missouri-Columbia | 89.3% | 53 | 89.3% | 3.6% | 0.0% | 92.9% | 42 |
| Iowa | 92.7% | 27 | 92.7% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 92.7% | 43 |
| George Mason | 90.7% | 36 | 90.7% | 0.6% | 1.2% | 92.5% | 44 |
| Emory | 88.9% | 56 | 88.9% | 0.4% | 3.2% | 92.5% | 45 |
| St. Thomas (MN) | 88.0% | 65 | 88.0% | 4.2% | 0.0% | 92.3% | 46 |
| Florida State | 87.6% | 69 | 87.6% | 0.9% | 3.7% | 92.2% | 47 |
| Boston College | 90.8% | 34 | 90.8% | 1.3% | 0.0% | 92.1% | 48 |
| South Carolina | 90.5% | 38 | 90.5% | 0.0% | 1.5% | 92.0% | 49 |
| Pepperdine | 90.0% | 43 | 90.0% | 1.3% | 0.7% | 92.0% | 50 |
March 14, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Monday, March 13, 2023
Seto: 2022 First-Time Bar Pass Performance Of California Law Schools, Controlling For 25th Percentile LSATs
TaxProf Blog op-ed: First-Time Bar Pass Performance of California Law Schools, Controlling For 25th Percentile LSATs, by Theodore Seto (Loyola-L.A.; Google Scholar):
In a recent TaxProf blog post, Paul Caron ranked all law schools by their 2022 first-time bar passage rates, based on ABA data. Based on that same 2022 data, I then explored the extent to which California law schools over- or under-performed in first-time bar passage after controlling for the median LSATs of their students. After posting my analysis, Paul asked me to replicate that analysis using law schools’ 25th percentile LSATs — in effect, to measure the extent to which California law schools add value to their students most at risk, the bottom quarter of their classes by LSAT.
Because U.S. News uses median LSATs in ranking law schools, schools have the flexibility to take other criteria into account in admitting the bottom half of their classes (by LSAT) without directly affecting their U.S. News ranking (e.g., admitting diverse or first-generation students). To the extent LSATs are predictive of bar passage, however, doing so may negatively affect bar passage rates. Schools can manage this problem in at least two ways: (1) by keeping their 25th percentile LSATs as high as possible, or (2) admitting lower-LSAT students (typically diverse or first-generation students) and devoting resources to maximizing the likelihood that they too will pass the bar. This follow-up analysis therefore looks at the extent to which California law schools are successful in preparing the bottom of their classes for the bar — that is, the value they add to their students most at risk.
Here are the relevant raw data from 2022. The first column is 25th percentile LSATs, the second is distance of the school’s bar passage rate above or below the state average. Schools are listed in the order of 25th percentile, high to low:
March 13, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Friday, March 10, 2023
More Commentary On The U.S. News Law School Rankings Op-Ed
Mike Spivey (Spivey Consulting), Some Commentary on the U.S. News Op-Ed:
U.S. News & World Report is not sitting idle while its rankings come under fire. The CEO published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal offering his views on the rankings boycott. ...
We have been paid money over the years to help law schools understand their U.S. News rankings. It's against our interests as a firm, from a revenue standpoint, for schools to boycott the rankings, and for applicants to stop paying attention to them. But we're telling you that is the best outcome for everyone.
U.S. News has no expertise in law or legal education. They have no expertise in education in general. Imagine if a bunch of lawyers got together and decided to rank the best immunology programs. That's the absurdity of what U.S. News does. At least when Above the Law publishes its rankings they come from actual lawyers and law school graduates.
March 10, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Seto: 2022 First-Time Bar Pass Performance Of California Law Schools, Controlling For Median LSATs
TaxProf Blog op-ed: First-Time Bar Pass Performance of California Law Schools, Controlling For Median LSATs, by Theodore Seto (Loyola-L.A.; Google Scholar):
In a recent TaxProf Blog post, Paul Caron ranked all law schools by their 2022 first-time bar passage rates, based on ABA data.
Based on that same 2022 data, I here examine the extent to which California law schools over- or under-performed in first-time bar passage after controlling for the median LSATs of their students. After all, we would expect Stanford students to do well on the bar regardless of the preparation they receive at Stanford. And we would expect students at Southwestern to do worse than Stanford students on the bar, again regardless of the quality of the education they receive at Southwestern. This is because we believe LSATs to be predictive of something—not sure of what—but of something.
What we really should be interested in is not bar pass rates – which are largely a function of the innate academic abilities of schools’ incoming students – but rather the extent to which their students over- or under-perform on the bar exam after controlling for incoming LSATs. In other words, we should be looking at schools’ value added.
Here are the relevant raw data from 2022. The first column is median LSATs, the second is distance of the school’s bar passage rate above or below the state average. Schools are listed in the order of median LSATs, high to low:
March 7, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Monday, March 6, 2023
Muller: Boycotting Law Schools Are Still Admitting 'Splitters' To Maximize Their U.S. News Ranking
Following up on my previous post, Law School Admissions, U.S. News Rankings, And 'Splitters': Derek Muller (Iowa; Google Scholar), Law Schools Say They're "Boycotting" the USNWR Rankings, But Their Admissions Practices Suggest Otherwise:
Earlier, I pointed out that law schools “boycotting” the USNWR law school rankings really meant that they would not be completing the survey forms circulated to them. ... I also noted that some schools appeared to still be “participating” in other elements of the rankings. Some, for instance, circulated promotional material to prospective USNWR voting faculty about the achievements of their schools and their faculty.
But I wanted to focus on another mismatch between what law schools are saying and what they are doing. And that’s in admissions.
Yale and Harvard, in their opening salvo, lamented the over-emphasize on the median LSAT and UGPA of incoming students. So, the thought might have gone, we are going to consider admissions based on our own criteria, not dictated by USNWR. As I chronicled a decade ago, USNWR significantly distorts the incentives for law school admissions by driving schools to admit students with either an above-target-median LSAT or an above-target-median UGPA. Higher-caliber students who fall just below the cusp are not admitted, as measured by the “index score,” which is most predictive of law school performance. Lower-caliber students who excel on one of these two measures are admitted.
So would boycotting schools simply ignore the consequences of the USNWR formula and instead admit classes less focused on medians? It appears not. With almost pinpoint precision, you can see that law schools continue to target a particular median LSAT and UGPA in their admissions statistics. Self-reported LSD.law, which in various iterations has been a go-to source of self-reported law school admissions information for twenty years, reflects that these law schools, so far, continue to push medians. ...
March 6, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Amar: What Law Schools Rankings Can Learn From College Sports Rankings
Vikram David Amar (Dean, Illinois), Some Thoughts on the Recent Controversies Concerning Law (and Med) School Rankings: Part I in a Series:
[T]here is no doubt that certain specific aspects of U.S. News’ methodology have been the focus of fire by law and medical school critics. One recurring source of criticism has been that these rankings give a false sense of precision because they rank hundreds of schools ordinally. ...
Another very loud source of criticism of U.S. News these days—that it attaches weight to the standardized test scores of enrolled students (as an indicator of the academic strength of the student body)—has, I must admit, puzzled me a bit. I fully understand that standardized test scores have a disparate impact along racial lines and for that reason they must be used in admissions with a great deal of care. But all the medical schools and law schools who are boycotting themselves attach a fair amount of significance to standardized test scores as part of their admissions processes (at least for now). Medical schools are under no regulatory requirement to do so, yet they have consistently made MCAT scores a relevant factor. And even as the ABA is considering a proposal (that was recently remanded from the ABA’s House of Delegates to the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar) to remove the requirement that law schools use standardized tests in admissions, a group of 60 or so law deans, including many of the most progressive and diversity-focused law deans in the country, sent a letter to the ABA last fall opposing the elimination of such a requirement (at least without more study of the matter.) As the letter pointed out, “standardized tests—including the LSAT—can be useful as one of several criteria by which to assess whether applicants are capable of succeeding in law school and to enhance the diversity of our incoming classes. . . . Used properly, as one factor in a holistic admissions process, this index score can help identify students who are capable of performing at a satisfactory level.” Moreover, the letter said, if standardized test scores were not used (and if some schools stop using them, others will be pressured into following suit), then other factors, such as college GPAs, may assume even greater weight in admissions decisions, and such other factors might have an equal or greater disparate impact along racial lines. In this regard, it should be remembered that standardized test scores came into wide use a few generations ago in significant part because other admissions criteria—college attended, letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, etc.—seemed to many to provide unfair advantages to people who come from well-educated, well-heeled and well-connected families. Standardized test scores were added to the mix in part to level the playing field.
Vikram David Amar (Dean, Illinois), More on Ranking Law Schools, and What Can be Learned from Ranking of Sports Teams: Part Two in a Series:
I suggest at least four ways in which rankings of academic institutions can borrow from innovations in college sports rankings. ...
March 6, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Saturday, March 4, 2023
NY Times: Defending Its Rankings, U.S. News Takes Aim At Top Law Schools
New York Times, Defending Its Rankings, U.S. News Takes Aim at Top Law Schools:
U.S. News & World Report said little last fall as Yale, Harvard and other elite law schools announced that they would no longer submit data to the publication’s rankings, charging that the influential list was an engine of inequality.
But in the last few days, U.S. News has fired back. In a public-relations campaign, the publication has accused the schools of trying to avoid accountability on admissions and outcomes for students, and it connected the boycott to a looming Supreme Court decision that could end affirmative action.
“Some law deans are already exploring ways to sidestep any restrictive ruling by reducing their emphasis on test scores and grades — criteria used in our rankings,” Eric J. Gertler, the executive chairman and chief executive of U.S. News, wrote in an opinion essay on Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal.
The conflict is a sign that U.S. News will not shy away from vigorously defending the rankings, which are criticized by many universities but are popular with families — making them potentially another flash point in the country’s divisive debate over education issues.
March 4, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Friday, March 3, 2023
Law School Rankings By Ultimate Bar Passage Rate (2020)
Following up on my previous posts:
- 2022 Bar Pass Rate Fell 2 Percentage Points Due To Fewer 1L Academic Dismissals After Spring 2020 Covid Semester
- Law School Rankings By 2022 First-Time Bar Passage Rate
Here is the ranking of schools in the Ultimate Graduation Year 2020 Bar Pass Data from the ABA's spreadsheet released last Friday:
| Rank | School | Pass Rate | Pass Rate (Incl.Diploma Privilege) |
| 1 | BYU | 100.00% | 100.00% |
| 1 | Chicago | 100.00% | 100.00% |
| 1 | Stanford | 100.00% | 100.00% |
| 1 | Utah | 100.00% | 100.00% |
| 5 | Duke | 99.52% | 99.53% |
| 6 | Minnesota | 99.48% | 99.48% |
| 7 | Louisiana State | 99.37% | 99.64% |
| 8 | UC-Berkeley | 99.36% | 99.38% |
| 9 | Virginia | 99.35% | 99.36% |
| 10 | Baylor | 99.23% | 99.24% |
| 11 | Alabama | 99.21% | 99.21% |
| 12 | Michigan | 99.20% | 99.20% |
| 13 | Texas A&M | 99.19% | 99.19% |
| 14 | NYU | 99.14% | 99.15% |
| 15 | Texas | 99.03% | 99.04% |
| 16 | Harvard | 99.01% | 99.01% |
| 17 | UCLA | 99.00% | 99.01% |
| 18 | Yale | 98.96% | 98.96% |
| 19 | Georgia | 98.85% | 98.86% |
| 20 | Boston Univ. | 98.64% | 98.65% |
| 21 | Regent | 98.53% | 98.53% |
| 22 | USC | 98.34% | 98.35% |
| 23 | Penn | 98.34% | 98.37% |
| 24 | Washington Univ. | 98.19% | 98.21% |
| 25 | William & Mary | 97.71% | 97.73% |
| 26 | Florida Int'l | 97.67% | 97.67% |
| 27 | Colorado | 97.65% | 97.66% |
| 28 | Cornell | 97.41% | 97.42% |
| 29 | Missouri-Columbia | 97.37% | 97.44% |
| 30 | Fordham | 97.33% | 97.33% |
| 31 | Samford | 97.20% | 97.20% |
| 32 | Northwestern | 97.11% | 97.11% |
| 33 | Wake Forest | 97.10% | 97.10% |
| 34 | Boston College | 97.07% | 97.10% |
| 35 | Dayton | 97.01% | 97.06% |
| 35 | New Hampshire | 97.01% | 97.01% |
| 37 | Ohio State | 97.00% | 97.01% |
| 38 | Montana | 96.92% | 97.06% |
| 39 | George Mason | 96.88% | 96.97% |
| 40 | North Carolina | 96.86% | 96.89% |
| 41 | Northeastern | 96.83% | 96.88% |
| 42 | St. Louis | 96.79% | 96.82% |
| 43 | Vanderbilt | 96.63% | 96.63% |
| 44 | Texas Tech | 96.61% | 96.61% |
| 45 | New Mexico | 96.46% | 96.46% |
| 46 | Liberty | 96.30% | 96.36% |
| 47 | Columbia | 96.22% | 96.22% |
| 48 | Loyola-L.A. | 96.19% | 96.19% |
| 49 | George Washington | 95.96% | 96.06% |
| 50 | St. John's | 95.95% | 95.95% |
March 3, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Thursday, March 2, 2023
Law School Rankings By 2022 First-Time Bar Passage Rate
Following up on Monday's post, 2022 Bar Pass Rate Fell 2 Percentage Points Due To Fewer 1L Academic Dismissals After Spring 2020 Covid Semester: here is the ranking of schools in the Calendar Year 2022 First-Time Takers Bar Pass Data from the ABA's spreadsheet released last Friday:
| Rank | School | School Pass Rate | Average State Pass Rate | Total Difference |
| 1 | Puerto Rico | 68.29% | 46.84% | 21.45% |
| 2 | Marquette | 100.00% | 79.16% | 20.84% |
| 3 | North Carolina | 93.75% | 73.27% | 20.48% |
| 4 | Harvard | 98.46% | 78.78% | 19.68% |
| 5 | UCLA | 92.47% | 73.23% | 19.24% |
| 6 | UC-Berkeley | 93.35% | 74.41% | 18.94% |
| 7 | New Hampshire | 86.90% | 68.32% | 18.58% |
| 8 | Stanford | 94.41% | 75.86% | 18.55% |
| 9 | Virginia | 95.65% | 77.93% | 17.72% |
| 10 | Yale | 95.77% | 78.40% | 17.37% |
| 11 | Chicago | 94.26% | 77.00% | 17.26% |
| 12 | Michigan | 95.05% | 77.81% | 17.24% |
| 13 | Duke | 94.39% | 77.21% | 17.18% |
| 14 | William & Mary | 93.90% | 76.87% | 17.03% |
| 15 | Northwestern | 92.89% | 76.19% | 16.70% |
| 16 | Baylor | 91.97% | 75.29% | 16.68% |
| 17 | Regent | 92.59% | 76.28% | 16.31% |
| 18 | Notre Dame | 92.72% | 76.53% | 16.19% |
| 19 | Tennessee | 88.39% | 72.36% | 16.03% |
| 20 | Florida Int'l | 80.25% | 64.23% | 16.02% |
| 21 | Wake Forest | 89.84% | 73.96% | 15.88% |
| 22 | Belmont | 87.07% | 71.54% | 15.53% |
| 23 | Illinois | 90.48% | 74.99% | 15.49% |
| 24 | Oklahoma | 85.19% | 69.78% | 15.41% |
| 25 | Washington Univ. | 92.34% | 76.98% | 15.36% |
| 26 | USC | 89.00% | 73.65% | 15.35% |
| 27 | Penn | 93.77% | 78.59% | 15.18% |
| 28 | Vanderbilt* | 93.18% | 76.94% | 15.11% |
| 29 | Penn State-Dickinson | 88.31% | 73.45% | 14.86% |
| 30 | Texas* | 86.12% | 76.00% | 14.64% |
| 31 | Seton Hall | 85.71% | 71.43% | 14.28% |
| 32 | Minnesota | 93.48% | 79.21% | 14.27% |
| 33 | Florida State* | 77.94% | 64.62% | 14.09% |
| 34 | Washington & Lee* | 90.27% | 77.18% | 13.89% |
| 34 | NYU | 94.90% | 81.01% | 13.89% |
| 34 | Richmond | 91.07% | 77.18% | 13.89% |
| 37 | Texas A&M | 89.41% | 75.53% | 13.88% |
| 38 | Arizona State | 84.50% | 71.66% | 12.84% |
| 39 | Georgetown | 91.63% | 78.97% | 12.66% |
| 40 | Boston Univ. | 91.82% | 79.23% | 12.59% |
| 41 | Columbia | 93.72% | 81.24% | 12.48% |
| 42 | Connecticut | 85.38% | 73.02% | 12.36% |
| 43 | Penn State-Univ. Park | 86.29% | 74.18% | 12.11% |
| 44 | Missouri-Columbia | 90.59% | 78.66% | 11.93% |
| 45 | SMU* | 85.33% | 75.44% | 11.91% |
| 46 | Ohio State | 89.89% | 78.16% | 11.73% |
| 47 | UC-Irvine | 84.40% | 72.73% | 11.67% |
| 48 | Kentucky | 82.89% | 71.27% | 11.62% |
| 49 | Georgia | 89.06% | 77.48% | 11.58% |
| 50 | Boston College | 91.77% | 80.30% | 11.47% |
March 2, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
U.S. News, Department Of Education, And Law Schools Take The Gloves Off In Rankings Battle
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: Why Elite Law and Medical Schools Can’t Stand U.S. News, by Eric J. Gertler (Chairman & CEO, U.S. News):
The decision by some elite law and medical schools to opt out of the U.S. News & World Report ranking surveys has ignited a national debate on meritocracy and equity. But lost in this discussion is the reason U.S. News ranks academic institutions and why our rankings are so important to aspiring students. ...
Our rankings don’t capture every nuance. Academic institutions aren’t monolithic or static; comparing them across a common data set can be challenging. But we reject our critics’ paternalistic view that students are somehow incapable of discerning for themselves from this information which school is the best fit.
Moreover, the perspective of elite schools doesn’t fit with that of the broader law- and medical-school community. Our editors held meetings with 110 law deans following the outcry over our rankings. Excepting the top 14 law schools, almost 75% of the schools that submitted surveys in 2022 did so in 2023. For medical schools, the engagement level was higher.
While we know that our rankings are important to students, we’re incredulous that our critics blame our rankings for just about every issue academia confronts. ... [E]lite schools object to our use of a common data set for all schools because our rankings are something they can’t control and they don’t want to be held accountable by an independent third party. ...
By refusing to participate, elite schools are opting out of an important discussion about what constitutes the best education for students, while implying that excellence and important goals like diversity are mutually exclusive.
Is it tolerable to leave schools unaccountable for the education they deliver to students? We think not.
Reuters, U.S. News Rankings Come Under Fire at Yale, Harvard Conference:
The U.S. Secretary of Education on Wednesday criticized annual higher education rankings published by U.S. News and World Report, saying they have "created an unhealthy obsession with selectivity."
Secretary Miguel Cardona was speaking at a conference organized by the law schools at Harvard and Yale universities, amid a backlash over the magazine's influential law school rankings.
“We need a culture change," Cardona said, asserting that U.S. News' emphasis on selectivity and exclusivity has helped steer underserved students to lower-tier institutions. "It’s time to stop worshipping at the false altar of U.S. News & World Report.”
March 2, 2023 in Law Review Rankings, Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Colorado College President (And Former UC-Irvine Law Dean) Song Richardson Withdraws From U.S. News Rankings
Wall Street Journal, Colorado College Withdraws From U.S. News & World Report Undergrad Ranking:
Colorado College will no longer cooperate with U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of the nation’s best colleges, making it the highest-ranked college to pull out of the undergraduate rankings in decades.
“We have a very strong vision for where we want to go in the future. Those metrics that U.S. News measures are just inconsistent with who we are,” said Colorado College President L. Song Richardson. The school has consistently ranked among the nation’s top 30 liberal-arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report’s measure, landing at No. 27 on the latest list.
Colorado’s withdrawal follows a string of defections by top-ranked law and medical schools since November, signaling that dissatisfaction with the rankings’ methodology and power is continuing to spread.
March 1, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
The Choosiest Law Schools: Wash U Is Top 5, Yale Is No. 1 (Mostly)
ABA Journal, Which Law Schools Are Choosiest? Washington University Is In Top Five, While Yale Is Mostly No. 1:
Yale Law School is No. 1 based on ABA admissions data showing that it is the choosiest law school in terms of acceptance rate and median LSAT scores for fall 2022.
But Yale Law falls to No. 2 in a tie with two other law schools based on the median undergraduate grade-point average of its fall 2022 admittees, according to Paul L. Caron, dean of the Pepperdine University Rick J. Caruso School of Law who published his findings at the TaxProf Blog here, here, here and here. ...
March 1, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Monday, February 27, 2023
WSJ: Boycotting Medical Schools, Diversity, And Merit
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: Medical Schools Are Wrong to Think Diversity and Merit Are in Conflict, by Fritz François (NYU Medical School) & Gbenga Ogedegbe (NYU Medical School):
A growing number of medical schools have announced that they will no longer share data with U.S. News & World Report. These schools claim that the magazine’s annual rankings hinder their ability to increase diversity.
Such claims aren’t supported by evidence. The ranking methodology, as currently constructed, includes consideration of students’ Medical College Admission Test scores and undergraduate grade-point averages, as well as other criteria. But medical schools have always been free to admit anyone they choose, regardless of their rankings. It’s true that diversity isn’t a criterion in the U.S. News methodology, but why should that stop schools from recruiting minority applicants or establishing a campus culture that encourages and values diversity? There is nothing in a thoughtful admissions process that explicitly prevents medical schools from assembling a student body based on anything other than academic performance, holistic reviews and interviews of candidates. ...
February 27, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Saturday, February 25, 2023
The U.S. News Rankings Drama And The Future Of Legal Education
David Lat Podcast, The U.S. News Rankings Drama And The Future Of Legal Education:
In almost thirty years of following the world of U.S. legal education, from applying to law schools in fall 1995 to covering them today as a journalist, I don’t think I have seen as consequential a time as the current one. To explain the whirlwind of recent developments, I sought out two of my favorite observers of the legal academy: Dan Rodriguez, former dean of the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and Anna Ivey, former admissions dean at the University of Chicago Law School.
When I asked them to join me, I selected as our topic the U.S. News law school rankings—specifically, the withdrawal of dozens of schools from the rankings, followed by the announcement of significant revisions to the rankings methodology. But it’s impossible to discuss the rankings in a vacuum, so we wound up having a wide-ranging discussion that touched on two other possible major changes—abandonment of the LSAT (or any other test) as an admissions requirement, and an end to affirmative action—and the future of legal education more generally.
February 25, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Thursday, February 23, 2023
Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Admissions
Last month, I summarized the momentous changes coming in the 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings methodology to be released in the spring (the 2023 rankings are here). The 2024 rankings will be based in part on the 2022 admissions data I blogged the last three days. In the current 2023 methodology, law school admissions count 21% in the overall ranking:
- Acceptance Rate (1%)
- Median Undergraduate GPA (8.75%)
- Median LSAT (11.25%) (omits GRE due to uncertainty over how U.S. News will treat GRE scores of law schools that refuse to supply that data)
Below are two admissions rankings. The first is a simple ranking using the above weights. The second uses Z-scores with the above weights to better approximate the U.S. News methodology.
|
Law School |
Acceptance Rate Rank | UPGA Rank | LSAT Rank |
Weighted Ranks |
|
| 1 | Yale | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1.42 |
| 2 | Harvard | 4 | 6 | 2 | 3.76 |
| 3 | Stanford | 2 | 6 | 3 | 4.20 |
| 4 | Washington Univ. | 26 | 2 | 6 | 5.29 |
| 5 | Chicago | 12 | 9 | 3 | 5.93 |
| 6 | Virginia | 10 | 2 | 10 | 6.67 |
| 7 | Penn | 3 | 10 | 6 | 7.52 |
| 8 | Columbia | 7 | 16 | 3 | 8.61 |
| 9 | NYU | 19 | 15 | 6 | 10.37 |
| 10 | UCLA | 18 | 10 | 10 | 10.38 |
| 11 | Cornell | 24 | 16 | 6 | 11.02 |
| 12 | Northwestern | 17 | 14 | 10 | 12.00 |
| 13 | Vanderbilt | 13 | 10 | 15 | 12.82 |
| 14 | Georgetown | 25 | 21 | 10 | 15.30 |
| 15 | Florida | 23 | 10 | 20 | 15.98 |
| 16 | BYU | 56 | 6 | 21 | 16.42 |
| 17 | Duke | 6 | 23 | 15 | 17.90 |
| 18 | Michigan | 11 | 29 | 10 | 17.96 |
| 19 | USC | 9 | 16 | 21 | 18.35 |
| 20 | Georgia | 16 | 16 | 21 | 18.68 |
| 21 | Alabama | 39 | 1 | 31 | 18.88 |
| 22 | Texas | 14 | 26 | 15 | 19.54 |
| 23 | Boston Univ. | 20 | 26 | 15 | 19.82 |
| 24 | UC-Berkeley | 8 | 29 | 15 | 20.50 |
| 25 | George Washington | 36 | 26 | 21 | 23.80 |
| 26 | Texas A&M | 20 | 5 | 41 | 25.00 |
| 27 | Arizona State | 31 | 23 | 28 | 26.06 |
| 28 | Notre Dame | 34 | 34 | 21 | 27.04 |
| 29 | Minnesota | 84 | 29 | 21 | 27.33 |
| 30 | Emory | 40 | 36 | 21 | 28.15 |
| 31 | George Mason | 30 | 29 | 31 | 30.12 |
| 32 | Florida State | 29 | 29 | 36 | 32.75 |
| 33 | North Carolina | 15 | 38 | 31 | 33.15 |
| 34 | Pepperdine Caruso | 41 | 23 | 41 | 33.50 |
| 35 | Ohio State | 83 | 21 | 41 | 34.67 |
| 36 | Boston College | 5 | 45 | 31 | 35.60 |
| 37 | Utah | 57 | 16 | 50 | 36.17 |
| 38 | Fordham | 27 | 51 | 28 | 37.54 |
| 39 | UC-Irvine | 28 | 51 | 28 | 37.58 |
| 40 | Indiana (Maurer) | 105 | 34 | 41 | 41.13 |
| 41 | Cardozo | 68 | 39 | 41 | 41.45 |
| 42 | William & Mary | 116 | 43 | 36 | 42.73 |
| 43 | Wisconsin | 74 | 48 | 36 | 42.81 |
| 44 | Wake Forest | 60 | 51 | 36 | 43.39 |
| 45 | Villanova | 22 | 39 | 50 | 44.08 |
| 46 | University of Arizona | 35 | 39 | 50 | 44.70 |
| 47 | Illinois | 73 | 60 | 31 | 45.08 |
| 48 | Colorado | 55 | 51 | 41 | 45.83 |
| 49 | UC-Davis | 37 | 64 | 36 | 47.71 |
| 50 | Richmond | 66 | 43 | 50 | 47.85 |
February 23, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Law School Rankings By Fall 2022 Acceptance Rates
Update: Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Admissions
Following up on this week's posts:
| Rank | School | 2022 Acceptance Rate | 2021 Acceptance Rate |
| 1 | Yale | 5.72 | 4.12 (1) |
| 2 | Stanford | 6.88 | 6.28 (2) |
| 3 | Penn | 9.74 | 9.39 (4) |
| 4 | Harvard | 10.06 | 6.90 (3) |
| 5 | Boston College | 10.16 | 23.49 (33) |
| 6 | Duke | 10.74 | 14.45 (14) |
| 7 | Columbia | 11.93 | 11.42 (7) |
| 8 | UC-Berkeley | 12.47 | 13.66 (11) |
| 9 | USC | 12.70 | 12.96 (10) |
| 10 | Virginia | 12.88 | 9.66 (5) |
| 11 | Michigan | 13.51 | 10.65 (6) |
| 12 | Chicago | 14.24 | 11.91 (8) |
| 13 | Vanderbilt | 14.53 | 14.25 (13) |
| 14 | Texas | 14.56 | 15.24 (16) |
| 15 | North Carolina | 14.61 | 15.46 (19) |
| 16 | Georgia | 14.83 | 18.48 (28) |
| 17 | Northwestern | 15.05 | 13.91 (12) |
| 18 | UCLA | 15.50 | 15.43 (18) |
| 19 | NYU | 15.65 | 14.52 (15) |
| 20 | Boston Univ. | 16.33 | 18.33 (26) |
| 20 | Texas A&M | 16.33 | 18.41 (27) |
| 22 | Villanova | 16.47 | 17.80 (25) |
| 23 | Florida | 16.94 | 17.43 (22) |
| 24 | Cornell | 17.44 | 15.41 (17) |
| 25 | Georgetown | 17.64 | 12.88 (9) |
| 26 | Washington Univ. | 18.02 | 15.88 (20) |
| 27 | Fordham | 18.79 | 17.69 (24) |
| 28 | UC-Irvine | 19.45 | 16.83 (21) |
| 29 | Florida State | 19.58 | 22.47 (32) |
| 30 | George Mason | 19.63 | 27.07 (42) |
| 31 | Arizona State | 19.65 | 20.61 (30) |
| 32 | Florida Int'l | 22.60 | 20.56 (29) |
| 33 | Baylor | 23.87 | 34.34 (75) |
| 34 | Notre Dame | 24.58 | 17.51 (23) |
| 35 | University of Arizona | 24.93 | 24.73 (36) |
| 36 | George Washington | 25.00 | 21.57 (31) |
| 37 | UC-Davis | 25.18 | 28.26 (49) |
| 38 | Golden Gate | 25.53 | 51.55 (142) |
| 39 | Alabama | 25.78 | 30.96 (60) |
| 40 | Emory | 26.05 | 27.31 (43) |
| 41 | Pepperdine | 27.68 | 24.97 (37) |
| 42 | Connecticut | 27.99 | 28.79 (51) |
| 43 | Dayton | 28.32 | 25.76 (40) |
| 44 | Georgia State | 28.44 | 26.96 (41) |
| 45 | Chapman | 28.70 | 28.26 (50) |
| 46 | UC-San Francisco | 28.95 | 28.04 (47) |
| 47 | Maryland | 29.49 | 32.77 (70) |
| 48 | Hawaii | 29.65 | 32.74 (67) |
| 49 | University of Washington | 30.29 | 25.57 (39) |
| 50 | Penn State-Univ. Park | 30.86 | 35.64 (77) |
February 22, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Law School Rankings By Fall 2022 Median UGPAs
Updates:
- Law School Rankings By Fall 2022 Acceptance Rates
- Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Admissions
Following up on yesterday's post, Law School Rankings By Fall 2022 Median LSAT Scores:
| Rank | School | 2022 UGPA | 2021 UGPA |
| 1 | Alabama | 3.95 | 3.94 (1) |
| 2 | Virginia | 3.94 | 3.91 (5) |
| 2 | Washington Univ. | 3.94 | 3.93 (3) |
| 2 | Yale | 3.94 | 3.94 (1) |
| 5 | Texas A&M | 3.93 | 3.84 (17) |
| 6 | BYU | 3.92 | 3.85 (14) |
| 6 | Harvard | 3.92 | 3.92 (4) |
| 6 | Stanford | 3.92 | 3.91 (5) |
| 9 | Chicago | 3.91 | 3.91 (5) |
| 10 | UCLA | 3.90 | 3.82 (22) |
| 10 | Florida | 3.90 | 3.86 (10) |
| 10 | Penn | 3.90 | 3.90 (8) |
| 10 | Vanderbilt | 3.90 | 3.89 (9) |
| 14 | Northwestern | 3.89 | 3.86 (10) |
| 15 | NYU | 3.88 | 3.86 (10) |
| 16 | Columbia | 3.87 | 3.84 (17) |
| 16 | Cornell | 3.87 | 3.86 (10) |
| 16 | Georgia | 3.87 | 3.82 (22) |
| 16 | USC | 3.87 | 3.82 (22) |
| 16 | Utah | 3.87 | 3.82 (22) |
| 21 | Georgetown | 3.86 | 3.85 (14) |
| 21 | Ohio State | 3.86 | 3.79 (33) |
| 23 | Arizona State | 3.85 | 3.85 (14) |
| 23 | Duke | 3.85 | 3.82 (22) |
| 23 | Pepperdine | 3.85 | 3.80 (29) |
| 26 | Boston Univ. | 3.84 | 3.77 (35) |
| 26 | George Washington | 3.84 | 3.83 (20) |
| 26 | Texas | 3.84 | 3.80 (29) |
| 29 | UC-Berkeley | 3.83 | 3.83 (20) |
| 29 | Florida State | 3.83 | 3.82 (22) |
| 29 | George Mason | 3.83 | 3.81 (28) |
| 29 | Michigan | 3.83 | 3.84 (17) |
| 29 | Minnesota | 3.83 | 3.80 (29) |
| 34 | Indiana (Maurer) | 3.81 | 3.77 (35) |
| 34 | Notre Dame | 3.81 | 3.77 (35) |
| 36 | Emory | 3.80 | 3.80 (29) |
| 36 | Wayne State | 3.80 | 3.75 (40) |
| 38 | North Carolina | 3.77 | 3.73 (43) |
| 39 | University of Arizona | 3.76 | 3.66 (62) |
| 39 | Cardozo | 3.76 | 3.74 (42) |
| 39 | Tennessee | 3.76 | 3.67 (60) |
| 39 | Villanova | 3.76 | 3.70 (45) |
| 43 | Richmond | 3.75 | 3.70 (45) |
| 43 | William & Mary | 3.75 | 3.78 (34) |
| 45 | Boston College | 3.74 | 3.69 (53) |
| 45 | San Diego | 3.74 | 3.70 (45) |
| 45 | UNLV | 3.74 | 3.70 (45) |
| 48 | Cincinnati | 3.73 | 3.70 (45) |
| 48 | Kansas | 3.73 | 3.69 (53) |
| 48 | Wisconsin | 3.73 | 3.65 (65) |
February 21, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Monday, February 20, 2023
Law School Rankings By Fall 2022 Median LSAT Scores
Updates:
- Law School Rankings By Fall 2022 Median UGPAs
- Law School Rankings By Fall 2022 Acceptance Rates
- Preview Of The 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Admissions
| Rank | School | 2022 LSAT | 2021 LSAT |
| 1 | Yale | 175 | 174 (1) |
| 2 | Harvard | 174 | 174 (1) |
| 3 | Chicago | 173 | 172 (4) |
| 3 | Columbia | 173 | 174 (1) |
| 3 | Stanford | 173 | 172 (4) |
| 6 | Cornell | 172 | 171 (7) |
| 6 | NYU | 172 | 172 (4) |
| 6 | Penn | 172 | 171 (7) |
| 6 | Washington Univ. | 172 | 170 (13) |
| 10 | UCLA | 171 | 170 (13) |
| 10 | Georgetown | 171 | 171 (7) |
| 10 | Michigan | 171 | 171 (7) |
| 10 | Northwestern | 171 | 171 (7) |
| 10 | Virginia | 171 | 171 (7) |
| 15 | Boston Univ. | 170 | 169 (16) |
| 15 | UC-Berkeley | 170 | 169 (16) |
| 15 | Duke | 170 | 170 (13) |
| 15 | Texas | 170 | 169 (16) |
| 15 | Vanderbilt | 170 | 169 (16) |
| 20 | Florida | 169 | 167 (22) |
| 21 | BYU | 168 | 167 (22) |
| 21 | Emory | 168 | 167 (22) |
| 21 | George Washington | 168 | 167 (22) |
| 21 | Georgia | 168 | 166 (27) |
| 21 | Minnesota | 168 | 166 (27) |
| 21 | Notre Dame | 168 | 168 (20) |
| 21 | USC | 168 | 168 (20) |
| 28 | Arizona State | 167 | 166 (27) |
| 28 | UC-Irvine | 167 | 167 (22) |
| 28 | Fordham | 167 | 166 (27) |
| 31 | Alabama | 166 | 165 (31) |
| 31 | Boston College | 166 | 165 (31) |
| 31 | George Mason | 166 | 164 (34) |
| 31 | Illinois | 166 | 164 (34) |
| 31 | North Carolina | 166 | 164 (34) |
| 36 | UC-Davis | 165 | 165 (31) |
| 36 | Florida State | 165 | 163 (45) |
| 36 | Wake Forest | 165 | 163 (45) |
| 36 | William & Mary | 165 | 164 (34) |
| 36 | Wisconsin | 165 | 164 (34) |
| 41 | Cardozo | 164 | 164 (34) |
| 41 | Colorado | 164 | 164 (34) |
| 41 | Indiana (Maurer) | 164 | 164 (34) |
| 41 | Ohio State | 164 | 163 (45) |
| 41 | Pepperdine | 164 | 164 (34) |
| 41 | SMU | 164 | 163 (45) |
| 41 | Texas A&M | 164 | 163 (45) |
| 41 | Washington & Lee | 164 | 164 (34) |
| 41 | University of Washington | 164 | 164 (34) |
| 50 | University of Arizona | 163 | 163 (45) |
| 50 | Baylor | 163 | 162 (54) |
| 50 | Iowa | 163 | 163 (45) |
| 50 | Maryland | 163 | 161 (61) |
| 50 | Northeastern | 163 | 162 (54) |
| 50 | Richmond | 163 | 162 (54) |
| 50 | Temple | 163 | 163 (45) |
| 50 | Utah | 163 | 163 (45) |
| 50 | Villanova | 163 | 162 (54) |
February 20, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Thursday, February 16, 2023
2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Overall Ranking
I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2023 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:
- Admissions Selectivity
- Academic Experience
- Professors: Teaching
- Professors: Accessibility
- Career Rating
Yesterday, I blogged the Top 50 law school professor rankings, giving equal weight (50%) to the Professors: Teaching and Professors: Accessibility rankings.
Today, in my concluding post, I blog the Princeton Review's overall law school rankings, giving equal weight (20%) to each of the Admissions Selectivity, Academic Experience, Professors: Teaching, Professors: Accessibility, and Career Rating rankings:
February 16, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching And Accessibility)
Update: 2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Overall Ranking
I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2023 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:
- Admissions Selectivity
- Academic Experience
- Professors: Teaching
- Professors: Accessibility
- Career Rating
Here are the Top 50 law school professor rankings, giving equal weight (50%) to the Professors: Teaching and Professors: Accessibility rankings:
February 15, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Career Rating
Update: 2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Overall Ranking
I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2023 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:
- Admissions Selectivity
- Academic Experience
- Professors: Teaching
- Professors: Accessibility
- Career Rating
Career Rating: This rating measures the confidence students have in their school's ability to lead them to fruitful employment opportunities, as well as the school's own record of having done so. This rating takes into account both student survey responses and school-reported statistical data. We ask students about how much the law program encourages practical experience; the opportunities for externships, internships, and clerkships; and how prepared to practice law they expect to feel after graduating. We ask law schools for the median starting salaries of graduating students; the percentage employed in a job that requires bar passage (and not employed by the school); and the percentage of these students who pass the bar exam the first time they take it. This rating is on a scale of 60–99.
February 14, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Monday, February 13, 2023
2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Accessibility)
Update: 2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Overall Ranking
I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2023 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:
- Admissions Selectivity
- Academic Experience
- Professors: Teaching
- Professors: Accessibility
- Career Rating
Professors: Accessible: This rating is based on how law students rate the accessibility of law faculty members at their school. The rating is on a scale of 60 to 99.
February 13, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Saturday, February 11, 2023
With Connecticut And Pittsburgh, 42 Law Schools Are Boycotting The U.S. News Rankings
*Will answer some but not all questions
February 11, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Friday, February 10, 2023
2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching)
Update: 2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Overall Ranking
I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2023 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:
- Admissions Selectivity
- Academic Experience
- Professors: Teaching
- Professors: Accessibility
- Career Rating
Professors: Interesting: This rating is based on how students rate the quality of teaching at their law school. This rating is on a scale of 60-99.
February 10, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Thursday, February 9, 2023
Will The Boycott Actually Strengthen The U.S. News Rankings?
Chronicle of Higher Education, How Criticism Actually Strengthens Rankings:
Why do college rankings endure? In a paper published last month, two German sociologists, Julian Hamann and Leopold Ringel, put forth a provocative hypothesis: that criticism ultimately strengthens rankers, who respond by modifying their work rather than abandoning it, which ends up reinforcing their legitimacy [The Discursive Resilience of University Rankings]. It’s like having the same argument with your spouse over who should do the dishes. In the end, it just reaffirms each of your places in the relationship.
Hamann and Ringel’s idea is especially relevant now. Over the past three months, dozens of law and medical schools have announced they will no longer cooperate with U.S. News & World Report on its rankings. The collective exodus gave law- and medical-school deans an opportunity to air their grievances with ranked lists in a high-profile way. ...
It’s been academe’s biggest protest of rankings in years. Yet could the ultimate critique — leaving the rankings — end up cementing rankers’ place in higher education? The Chronicle spoke with Hamann, a junior professor at Humboldt University of Berlin, and Ringel, a postdoctoral researcher at Bielefeld University, about how they interpret the current discontent with rankings, higher ed’s role in the rankings process, and how change could really happen. ...
Boycotting the ranking, that’s what law and medical schools in the U.S. did to U.S. News. Would you say that was an effective way of weakening the rankings?
February 9, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Academic Experience
Update: 2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Overall Ranking
I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2023 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:
- Admissions Selectivity
- Academic Experience
- Professors: Teaching
- Professors: Accessibility
- Career Rating
Academic Experience: This rating measures the quality of the school's learning environment on a scale of 60 to 99. Factors taken into consideration include the Admissions Selectivity Rating, as well as how students rate each of the following: the quality of teaching and the accessibility of their professors, the research resources at their school, the range of available courses, the balance of curricular emphasis on legal theory and practical lawyering, the tolerance for diverse opinions in the classroom, and the degree of intellectual challenge that the coursework presents.
February 9, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Admissions Selectivity
Update: 2023 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Overall Ranking
I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2023 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:
- Admissions Selectivity
- Academic Experience
- Professors: Teaching
- Professors: Accessibility
- Career Rating
Admissions Selectivity: This rating measures the competitiveness of admissions at each law school on a scale of 60–99. Factors taken into consideration include the median LSAT score and undergraduate GPA of entering 1L students, the percentage of applicants who are accepted, and the percentage of applicants who are accepted and ultimately enroll.
February 8, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Saturday, February 4, 2023
In Defense Of The U.S. News Law School Rankings
Kenneth Terrell (Princeton Alumni Weekend), Why College Rankings Remain Important, If Flawed:
Yale’s recent announcement that it would no longer “participate” in the U.S. News rankings of law schools — despite its place at the top of that list — has renewed talk that the era of these annual lists might be coming to an end, especially when 10 other law schools quickly announced they also would no longer cooperate with the publication. These institutions argue that the criteria U.S. News uses hurts their ability to enroll students of color, students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and those who might want to pursue careers in public service. ...
I believe the rankings are an important, if imperfect tool, for students and families. ...
To improve the education and career outcomes of students in law schools — particularly those who are from lower-income backgrounds, first in their family to go to college, students of color, or all of the above — commitments to meaningful change would be more effective than announcements about withdrawing from rankings.
February 4, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Friday, February 3, 2023
Is U.S. News In Trouble?
Observer, U.S. News Depends On its College Rankings. What Happens When Universities Don’t Want To Be Ranked?:
In the past few months, numerous high-ranked universities have dropped out of the U.S. News & World Report rankings, spelling trouble for the future of the nearly 80-year old publication.
For decades, schools, deans and even students have called for an overhaul of the annual U.S. News & World Report university rankings, to no avail.
But in the past few months, a series of public statements from top-ranked universities has begun to finally pose a real threat to U.S. News, which has been the dominant player in the rankings industry for nearly 40 years. ...
February 3, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Thursday, February 2, 2023
Two Perspectives On The Growing U.S. News Rankings Boycott
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: Medical Schools Bail on Academic Merit and Intellectual Rigor, by Ira Stoll (Education Next):
To see how the diversity, equity and inclusion mania is colliding with meritocracy in American higher education, pay attention to the flap over graduate schools pulling out of the U.S. News rankings. Readers who aren’t applying to medical school may have missed the controversy. But anyone who plans on seeing a doctor or benefiting from research or treatment at an academic medical center has an interest in the outcome.
So far, U.S. News has resisted demands from the graduate schools to base the rankings on equity rather than on the grades and test scores of incoming students. U.S. News has been transparent about the method it uses for its rankings, including factors such as a reputation survey, MCAT scores and grade point averages of incoming students.
The medical schools have been similarly clear about why they disagree with the U.S. News method and will stop participating. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in a Jan. 24 statement, said the U.S. News rankings undermine the school’s “commitment to anti-racism” and “outreach to diverse communities.” ...
February 2, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Princeton Review's Best 168 Law Schools (2023 Edition)
The Princeton Review has published the 2023 edition of The Best 168 Law Schools (press release) (FAQs) (methodology):
The company reports its annual law school rankings in 14 categories: each one lists the top 10 ranking schools. ...
The Princeton Review’s law school rankings are uniquely based on data the company gathers from surveys of administrators at the law schools as well as surveys of students attending the schools who rate and report on their experiences at them. The rankings for 2023 are based on surveys of administrators at 168 law schools in 2021-22 and surveys of 17,000 students enrolled in the schools [an average of 101 per school] over the past three academic years.
More than 60 data points are factored into the company’s ranking list tallies. Of the 14 categories of ranking lists, six lists are based on student- and administrator-reported data. Five are based solely on student data, and three are based solely on administrator data.
Best Quality of Life: Based on student answers to survey questions on: whether there is a strong sense of community at the school whether differing opinions are tolerated in the classroom, the location of the school, the quality of social life at the school, the school's research resources (library, computer and database resources).
- Virginia
- Florida State
- Vanderbilt
- UCLA
- Penn
Best Professors: Based on student answers to survey questions concerning how good their professors are as teachers and how accessible they are outside the classroom.
- Chicago
- Duke
- Stanford
- Virginia
- Vanderbilt
January 31, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Monday, January 30, 2023
WSJ: Rebellion Over U.S. News Rankings Seems Likely To Fail
Wall Street Journal, Rebellion Over College Rankings Seems Likely to Fail:
In the past two weeks, Harvard, Stanford and Columbia universities, the University of Pennsylvania and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai said they would stop cooperating with U.S. News & World Report’s medical-school rankings.
That followed the decision last year by universities including Yale, Georgetown, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and California, Berkeley to quit cooperating on the publication’s law-school rankings.
Critics are cheering the exodus from a process they say leads students to focus on external prestige rather than education quality and encourages schools to game rankings at the expense of students. The schools that are withdrawing say the rankings are elitist, and penalize institutions that admit strong candidates without high test scores.
“In the 40 years of rankings, this is the biggest shock to the system—that gives me hope,” said Colin Diver, a former president of Reed College, which has long abstained from the U.S. News ranking. Mr. Diver is the author of “Breaking Ranks: How the Rankings Industry Rules Higher Education and What to Do About It.”
But hopes that this marks the death knell for college rankings are likely to be in vain. The reality is that what the schools themselves contribute to the rankings is relatively small: The data includes test scores, alumni giving, financial information and so on. But most of the data used to determine the rankings can be derived from publicly available information, or surveys conducted by U.S. News itself. Indeed, U.S. News has revised the survey over the years in response to criticism. There is a case to be made that the less the schools contribute, the more objective the rankings might become, in some respects. ...
January 30, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Saturday, January 28, 2023
With Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, Tulane, And Creighton, 40 Law Schools Are Boycotting The U.S. News Rankings
*Will answer some but not all questions
January 28, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Justice Kavanaugh Says U.S. News Law School Rankings Are 'Very Problematic'; Peer Reputation Is 'Kind Of A Joke'
Reuters, Justice Kavanaugh Rips U.S. News Rankings As 'Highly Problematic' At Law School Talk
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has joined the growing chorus of U.S. News & World Report law school rankings critics, saying during a talk this week at the University of Notre Dame Law School that the annual list fails to accurately gauge which schools are providing the best legal education.
“I think they’re based on things, from what I understand, that are very amorphous, very subjective, very word of mouth factors that don’t correlate well with the education that you’re actually receiving, and I find them highly problematic,” Kavanaugh said during a Monday panel with law dean Marcus Cole, a video of which the school released on Thursday. ...
U.S. News has said it will continue to rank law schools despite the boycott and that is modifying its methodology to rely only on publicly available data supplied annually by the American Bar Association, which accredits law schools. It will no longer include expenditures-per-student, a metric that has been criticized as rewarding schools for driving up tuition, among other changes.
But the revamped rankings will still assign each school a “reputation score” derived from surveys of legal academics, judges and practicing lawyers. Kavanaugh called the reputation scores “kind of a joke,” adding that most people don’t have enough knowledge about different law schools to effectively rank them. He added that he does not consider law school rank when hiring clerks.
January 28, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Thursday, January 26, 2023
With Gonzaga, Quinnipiac, Rutgers, And Seattle, 36 Law Schools Are Boycotting The U.S. News Rankings
Updated U.S. News Law School Rankings Boycott Scorecard
*Will answer some but not all questions
January 26, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
How Diversity Is Lingering Over The LSAT And U.S. News Law School Rankings
How Diversity Is Lingering Over the LSAT and U.S. News & World Report Rankings, Nat'l Jurist, Winter 2023, at 4:
An ABA committee has recommended that standardized tests — most notably the LSAT — be optional for law school admission. Critics say schools place too much emphasis on it, and Black and Hispanic test-takers don’t perform as well on it as their white counterparts. ...
At the same time, a number of the nation’s most prestigious law schools are opting out of the much-hyped U.S. News & World Report rankings, blasting the assessment for a host of wrongs. Some say schools are boosting their positions in the rankings by admitting top students at the expense of those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Love ’em or hate ’em, the ranking affects both school and student behavior. ...
What’s caused such upheaval in such a short time?
Some say law schools are preparing for the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down — or seriously weaken — the ability of schools to use affirmative action practices in their admissions decisions. If that happens, schools will need to pivot and not be as dependent on such concrete metrics as the LSAT. If they continue the current course, it could gut diversity. The high court, which heard arguments last October, is expected to rule in June.
January 26, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
The Clash And The U.S. News Law School Rankings: Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
Lolita Buckner Inniss (Dean, Colorado), Should I Stay or Should I Go?, 26 Green Bag 2D 19 (2023):
During the fall and winter of 2022-2023, several United States law schools withdrew from participation in the U.S. News & World Report survey of law schools. For over three decades the survey ranked law schools, and in doing so, has become an increasingly influential arbiter of law school quality. Law schools, however, have argued that the survey fails to assess the nature and quality of schools fully or accurately, and for that reason many have ceased to participate--they are the “goers.” Other schools have chosen to continue participating; these are the “stayers.” While goers seem to have garnered news headlines as heroic, autonomy-embracing figures, it is worth considering whether the choice of going, or staying for that matter, will meaningfully alter how law schools are viewed. The world of law, and law schools, has long been governed by entrenched hierarchies and markers of status that exist well beyond the U.S. News & World Report survey.
January 25, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
The 50 Most Downloaded U.S. Law Professors Of 2022
| Rank | Name | School | Downloads |
| 1 | Cass Sunstein | Harvard | 43,282 |
| 2 | Daniel Solove | George Washington | 28,479 |
| 3 | Lucian Bebchuk | Harvard | 27,727 |
| 4 | Mark Lemley | Stanford | 21,131 |
| 5 | Orin Kerr | UC-Berkeley | 19,608 |
| 6 | Roberto Tallarita | Harvard | 15,229 |
| 7 | Brian Frye | Kentucky | 14,991 |
| 8 | Bernard Black | Northwestern | 13,599 |
| 9 | Brandon Hasbrouck | Washington & Lee | 13,456 |
| 10 | Danielle Keats Citron | Virginia | 13,417 |
| 11 | Greer Donley | Pittsburgh | 12,490 |
| 12 | Herbert Hovenkamp | Penn | 12,086 |
| 13 | Rachel Rebouché | Temple | 11,833 |
| 14 | Reuven Avi-Yonah | Michigan | 11,679 |
| 15 | David Cohen | Drexel | 11,670 |
| 16 | Brian Leiter | Chicago | 11,411 |
| 17 | J. Mark Ramseyer | Harvard | 10,743 |
| 18 | Stephen Bainbridge | UCLA | 10,708 |
| 19 | Dan Kahan | Yale | 10,527 |
| 20 | Mitu Gulati | Virginia | 10,472 |
| 21 | Michael Klausner | Stanford | 10,252 |
| 22 | Adrian Vermeule | Harvard | 9,420 |
| 23 | Michael Ohlrogge | NYU | 9,375 |
| 24 | Woodrow Hartzog | Boston University | 9,236 |
| 25 | Wulf Kaal | St. Thomas-MN | 9,202 |
| 26 | Eric Posner | Chicago | 8,967 |
| 27 | Eric Goldman | Santa Clara | 8,819 |
| 28 | Richard Albert | Texas | 8,522 |
| 29 | Kevin Tobia | Georgetown | 8,160 |
| 30 | Richard Leo | San Francisco | 8,154 |
| 31 | David Kopel | Denver | 8,023 |
| 32 | Neil Richards | Washington University | 7,890 |
| 33 | Chris Brummer | Georgetown | 7,886 |
| 34 | Hilary Allen | American | 7,588 |
| 35 | Peter Menell | UC-Berkeley | 7,584 |
January 25, 2023 in Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Ed Scholarship, Legal Education | Permalink
Monday, January 23, 2023
U.S. News Law School Rankings Boycott Scorecard (Updated)
Updated U.S. News Law School Rankings Boycott Scorecard
ABA Journal, US News Extends Rankings Survey Deadline; Which Law Schools Will File?:
After years of complaints about the U.S. News & World Report’s law school rankings, some deans started announcing in November that they would not respond to the publication’s annual survey. And they were not swayed to opt back in when methodology changes were shared this month.
U.S. News recently extended the survey deadline to Jan. 27. The ABA Journal asked all ABA-accredited law schools whether they planned to submit the survey. Out of the 110 schools that responded, 25 said they would not, and 22 were undecided. A chart with the information can be seen here.
The table below includes the responses to the ABA Journal as well as public announcements by law schools:
*Will answer some but not all questions
January 23, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Will The U.S. News Law School Rankings Arms Race Resume In Three Years?
ABA Journal, US News Extends Rankings Survey Deadline; Which Law Schools Will File?:
U.S. News posted a letter Jan. 2 explaining that schools not submitting surveys would still be included in the rankings. Those metrics will focus on public data from the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which is responsible for law school accreditation. Schools that submit surveys will have more detailed profiles, the letter said.
Last week, the publication informed deans about further modifications, including eliminating employment rates, average debt at graduation and spending on instruction from rankings criteria, according to a Jan. 13 letter shared on TaxProf Blog. ...
People may care less about the rankings this year because of the methodological changes, says Mike Spivey, a law school admissions consultant.
“But I’d bet that three years from now, we’re right back to the rankings arms race. As much as people want to say the rankings are horrible and flawed, academics and prospective students are very much interested in what their schools ranked,” he adds.
January 23, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Thursday, January 19, 2023
Texas Tech Law School Informs U.S. News Of 'Substantial' Misstatement Of Its Student Loan Data The Past Three Years
Texas Tech Law School informed U.S. News today that it submitted incorrect data on the average debt of its graduates for each of the past three years:
The error was originated three years ago by the main campus Office for Student Financial Aid and Scholarships, which collects this data for the Law School. The Law School relies reasonably and in good faith on our campus partners in Financial Aid to collect accurate data for us for our rankings purposes. We were very surprised and disappointed to learn that we received inaccurate data from this office under its prior leadership. ...
As Dean, I take full responsibility for the Law School’s failure to uncover the Office of Student Financial Aid’s reporting errors and ensure a correction before the Law School in turn reported incorrect data to US News. In particular, I should have implemented a more extensive and systematic set of review procedures for this area, which would have uncovered the error, and placed less reliance on the Office of Student Financial Aid’s review process and reports.
The misreport on this metric was substantial. The corrected debt numbers are the following: For 2019, the correct average debt number was $98,695, and the incorrect reported number was $62,583. For 2020, the correct average debt number was $86,023, and the incorrect reported number was $56,898. For 2021, last year, the correct average debt number was $85,956, and the incorrect reported number was $60,088. While these numbers were misreported to US News, they were never directly marketed to applicants by the Law School. We also remain a lower debt law school, and our corrected debt number for 2021 is still well below the national average for debt and a lower number than all but one of the other law schools in this state reporting average debt to US News.
January 19, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
With Maryland, USF, And South Texas, 28 Schools Are Now Boycotting The U.S. News Law School Rankings
Updated U.S. News Law School Rankings Boycott Scorecard
Maryland Carey Law Remains Focused on True Excellence:
After a great deal of thoughtful discussion with a wide variety of stakeholders, Maryland Carey Law has made the decision not to provide U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) with proprietary data about the institution in connection with USNWR’s Best Law Schools rankings, scheduled to be published this spring. As one of the oldest and most innovative law schools in the country, Maryland Carey Law has long provided students with the highest quality legal education -- one that trains them to become talented, ethical lawyers who care about justice. We will continue to do this work in the months and years to come.
We applaud USNWR’s willingness to reevaluate its flawed rankings methodology. In light of the company’s decision to rank all law schools on publicly available data only, Maryland Carey Law does not see the need to voluntarily provide additional institutional data for USNWR to sell. We look forward to working in good faith with USNWR in the years to come to arrive at a rankings methodology that more accurately reflects the wide range of values embraced by individual law schools, including fulfilling the aspirations and needs of the diverse range of students we all attract and educate. In the meantime, Maryland Carey Law will remain focused upon the excellence of its faculty, staff, and students, and upon its valued partnerships with the university, the city, the state, and beyond.
USF Law Will No Longer Provide Data to U.S. News:
January 19, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Muller Models And Projects Forthcoming U.S. News Law School Rankings
Derek Muller (Iowa; Google Scholar), Modeling and Projecting USNWR Law School Rankings Under New Methodologies:
First, the criteria. USNWR disclosed that it would no longer use privately-collected data and instead rely exclusively on publicly-available data, with the exception of its reputational survey data. (You can see what Dean Paul Caron has aggregated on the topic for more.) It’s not clear whether USNWR will rely on public data other than the ABA data. It’s also not clear whether it will introduce new metrics. It’s given some indications that it will reduce the weight of the reputational survey data, and it will increase the weight of output metrics. ...
One last step was to offer a potential high-low range among the rankings. For each of the five models, I gave each school a rank one step up and one step down, to suggest some degree of uncertainty in how USNWR calculates, for instance, the 10-month employment positions, or diploma privilege admission for bar passage, among other things. That gave me 15 potential rankings—a low, projected, and high among each of the five models. I took the lowest of the low and the highest of the high for a projected range. With high degrees of uncertainty, this range is an important caveat.
Below are my projections.
January 18, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
Law School Rankings Revolt Spreads To Medical Schools: #1 Harvard Will Not Send Data To U.S. News
Harvard Medical School, HMS Withdraws From U.S. News & World Report Rankings:
Following careful consideration and consultation with colleagues and stakeholders across Harvard Medical School and beyond, I write today to announce that HMS will no longer submit data to U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) to support their “best medical schools” survey and rankings. ...
I have contemplated this decision since becoming dean six years ago. The courageous and bold moves by my respected colleague Dean John Manning of Harvard Law School and those of peer law schools compelled me to act on behalf of Harvard Medical School. What matters most to me as dean, alumnus, and faculty member is not a #1 ranking, but the quality and richness of the educational experience we provide at Harvard Medical School that encourages personal growth and lifelong learning.
January 18, 2023 in Law School Rankings, Legal Ed News, Legal Ed Rankings, Legal Education | Permalink
