Over the decades, rankings have had a profound effect on everything from job placement to Supreme Court clerkships – but many schools are starting to question its relevance.
Last year, US News made some modifications to their rankings system that gave greater weight to students pursuing public interest careers; however, other concerns regarding how the rankings address student diversity remain.
How do rankings work?
Law school rankings can be created and assessed in several different ways, each offering its own set of advantages and drawbacks. Some ranking systems employ a “bell curve” system wherein those with higher IQ tests and grades tend to finish closer to the top of their classes, whereas other ranking systems take more holistic approaches that consider things such as student satisfaction and quality teaching. Finally, still others evaluate law schools based on specific criteria, such as where graduates have found employment after graduation.
No matter your ranking criteria, it is essential to remember that rankings alone cannot determine which law school will best meet your individual needs and goals. Additional considerations such as cost, location and scholarship availability need to be considered when making this important decision.
If you wish to pursue an aggressive legal field or in a competitive city, attending a higher-ranked school could be advantageous; many law firms hire graduates of top-ranked schools only. On the other hand, if your practice area is less competitive or you want to reduce student debt burdens a lower-ranked institution may be better for you.
Law school rankings can also help determine which schools are ideal for specific areas of law, like environmental or criminal. This is often because more prestigious law schools tend to offer more specialized legal programs, and their alumni tend to be leaders in their fields. There may also be other methods available to you when looking for an ideal law school such as looking at alumni success or professor publication frequency in journals.
Law school rankings remain an influential force in the legal world. Rankings can have an effect on deans being fired, law schools modifying policies, and students choosing certain schools – however prospective students must ensure not letting rankings determine their decisions and instead focus on meeting personal needs and goals as best possible as a 1L student.
What are the criteria?
US News recently unveiled changes to their ranking system following protest from nearly one third of law schools, following their boycott. Going forward, all data which is publicly accessible will only be considered in its rankings. Additionally, six of the ten metrics used in last year’s ranking will be dropped and graduates with school-funded public interest jobs will be counted like any employed graduates. Though this does not address how US News calculates these metrics, it is nonetheless a step in the right direction. Additionally, this demonstrates that ranking producers don’t require law schools’ endorsement to compile rankings from publicly available data; ultimately the law school industry shouldn’t enjoy veto power over rankings systems that evaluate legal education any more than auto manufacturers should possess this power when ranking car quality.
US News has revised how it weights its criteria for ranking schools, giving greater weight to employment and bar pass rates as measures of quality education. This shift came about following complaints that rankings provided schools an incentive to engage in unneeded costly activities like hiring top faculty or purchasing new facilities.
Another change will see student debt no longer considered when ranking schools, in response to concerns that this system privileges wealthy students over those in financial need. Instead, more weight will be placed on career outcomes like employment rates 10 months post graduation and first and second-year bar pass rates as measures of school quality.
Though these changes are welcome, they are unlikely to result in dramatic shifts in rankings. One reason may be due to difficulty for schools increasing employment and bar pass rates quickly while many metrics still heavily weight admission selectivity and cost as factors of significance; which make rapid change unlikely and make accurate information on various law schools hard to come by for prospective law students.
How do they choose the top-ranked graduates?
Selecting a law school can have far-reaching ramifications on your career. While rankings can provide helpful guidance, it’s essential to also take into account other considerations like cost, location and area of focus to help make a selection that’s tailored specifically to you.
Some deans of lower-ranked schools have expressed concern that withdrawing from U.S. News could actually do more damage than good to their institution. They contend they have worked tirelessly to increase metrics relevant to U.S. News rankings such as admitting students with higher LSAT scores and graduating them with less debt; yet without proper recognition it’s difficult for these schools to attract top faculty and students.
U.S. News responded to this criticism by changing how they calculate their rankings for 2023-2024 rankings. They will place less weight on schools’ national job placement rates; instead they will prioritize student’s job placement within their preferred practice area and give greater weight to full-time professional and nonprofessional jobs rather than positions classified as part time or short term.
Furthermore, ratings will give more consideration to specialty law degrees. In the past, a school’s ranking was determined by an aggregate score calculated from scores in five areas – quality assessment, selectivity, bar passage rates, legal writing and faculty resources – but now their placement will depend more heavily on individual scores in these five categories.
The new rankings will incorporate more data points than before, such as student-faculty ratios and library resources. They will also feature law school profiles with richer, more comprehensive program characteristics information for prospective students to compare against each other; visitors can create customized lists to further explore further; additionally, any school that fails to respond to our law school survey will be clearly flagged on their profile pages for transparency purposes.
How do they choose the top-ranked schools?
Law schools tend to dislike law school rankings, which tend to favor programs that attract students with enough money for tuition fees and encourage administrators to focus more on improving their numbers than on educating a new generation of lawyers, according to critics. Still, prospective law students rely heavily on them when narrowing their choices for law schools.
Ranking systems are inherently flawed, and schools’ rankings can shift for reasons unrelated to performance. For example, losing students to higher-ranked programs could cause them to drop significantly in next year’s rankings; conversely, making an impressionful statement or appearance can see their rankings soar significantly.
Law faculty members play a large part in ranking programs – they review how well each school helps graduates secure careers post graduation, the quality of its students and resources available at each institution, faculty-student ratio measures how much attention each student gets from faculty.
Rankings take into account factors like job-placement rates of recent graduates, programs designed to assist them with meeting specific career goals (i.e. working in government or international law) as well as research citations and publications by law schools. Finally, alumni relations are taken into consideration when ranking schools.
Last week, US News made headlines for shifting its methodology in order to place more focus on student outcomes rather than how a school operates, following protests by law schools that said their inclusion on US News’ list hindered diversity and affordability.
These changes mean that 58% of a school’s ranking will now depend on student outcomes such as employment rates and bar passage; previously this only represented 26%.
A panel of experts recommended changes that will take effect in 2023, citing declining participation as one factor that led to their decision.