Did You Catch the Latest US News Law School Rankings? Forum

[Peachy10]

Hey! Have you checked out the latest rankings from US News for law schools? I'm curious to hear your thoughts on what they mean for our future careers in law.

[talons2250]

Changes in rankings from one year to the next don't typically mean much. If one school consistently trends upward year after year after year (or vice versa) then that can affect how the school is perceived and create a feedback loop where people start to regard the school as more prestigious based on the ranking, which in turn leads better students and faculty to choose the school, which reinforces the high ranking, and so on. But notions of the general tiers of schools are pretty much locked in. Most people in the legal profession don't monitor the rankings and the only people looking closely at them are law school applicants. It doesn't help that virtually all the top law schools have "boycotted" the rankings and the Dean of Yale Law School has publicly attacked the rankings methodology.