Yale Law School Withdraws From The U.S. News & World Report Rankings

(CTN NEWS) – Yale Law School has withdrawn from the U.S. News & World Report law-school ranking, which topped for years, because the methodology was “flawed”.

An announcement from the law school cited a “misguided formula” that disincentivizes public interest careers and discourages law schools from doing what is best for legal education as the main reasons for the decision.

Heather K. Gerken, Yale Law School Dean, said, “The rankings process is undermining the core commitments of the legal profession.” “We will no longer participate.”

Despite Yale Law School’s top ranking since U.S. News Rankings began, Gerken said the university never used that position to advertise the program.

In Ranking 192 law schools based on a fixed set of metrics, U.S. News “faces an almost impossible task” of providing an accurate picture of such diverse institutions.

” Its approach does more than fail to advance the legal profession; it stands in the way of progress.“

Dean Heather Gerken spoke with @WSJ about why Yale Law School will no longer participate: “The U.S. News rankings are profoundly flawed,” she said. “Its approach not only fails to advance the legal profession, but stands squarely in the way of progress.”https://t.co/JoJ5U36PDV

— Yale Law School (@YaleLawSch) November 16, 2022

The U.S. News ranking discourages law schools from supporting students pursuing public interest careers and devalues graduates pursuing advanced degrees.

The magazine appears to classify students receiving public interest fellowships and those pursuing PhDs and master’s degrees as unemployed.

Furthermore, the ranking does not include loan forgiveness programs when calculating student debt loads, Gerken said.

When law schools encourage students to pursue public interest careers, U.S. News portrays them as low-employment schools with high debt loads,” the dean said.

This backward approach discourages law schools from supporting students who want to pursue a career in service.

Yale Law School alumni include Bill and Hillary Clinton, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor and Brett Kavanaugh.

There have been other high-profile developments that could weaken the power and influence of higher education institution rankings. According to Columbia University, inaccurate information was submitted to the U.S. News list.

Formerly tied with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the second-best national university, Columbia is now ranked 18th.

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