Love them or loathe them, the U.S. News & World Report rankings are most likely here to stay. Find out how much they are relied upon, and what other factors you should definitely consider.
By Karen Dybis
Law school rankings played a small yet important part in Linus Banghart-Linn’s decision.
The Lansing, Mich., native could have attended three different law schools, each with vastly different rankings on the U.S. News & World Report scale — Michigan State University, Thomas Cooley Law School and the University of Michigan. Of the three, only University of Michigan ranked within the top 100.
But he chose the one that offered the best scholarship, the shortest commute and the lowest debt after graduation.
Look in the backpack of the average pre-law student, and chances are you will find a dog-eared copy of U.S. News.
Typically, it’s not there to help them catch up on current events. Instead, they are reading and re-reading the news magazine’s controversial annual survey of the nation’s top graduate schools.
For better or worse, law-school rankings are a fundamental tool applicants use when selecting a law school, giving them a quick look at the quality and scope of schools available to them. But many pre-law advisors strongly discourage relying too heavily on the rankings.
Love them or loathe them
While there are a variety of blogs, Web sites and print publications that critique law schools, one ratings system has been the gold standard. U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Graduate Schools puts the nation’s 184 accredited law schools in a simple, easy-to-digest numerical ranking.
This ranking is based on a variety of criteria, such as peer assessments, median LSAT scores, graduate employment rates and student-to-faculty ratios. Each item receives a specific weight, and they are added together to determine the “best” law schools. The magazine also finds the best schools in specialties like trial advocacy, dispute resolution, or intellectual property and environmental law.
Educational experts have long debated whether rankings — particularly those developed by U.S. News — are a valid way to screen law schools.
Some pre-law advisors believe students should peruse the magazine’s rankings in the process of choosing a law school, particularly if they are deciding between a handful of schools. They say the rankings can help them in one of the toughest choices they must make.
“They might help you focus on your decision-making process, and it doesn’t hurt,” said Donald C. Heilman, an attorney and director of compliance, research & assessment for the Office of Student Affairs at Rutgers University. “The ratings are a tool, but they’re only one tool.”
Other advisors say they strongly discourage students from using the U.S. News rankings, noting the criteria used to judge a law school’s quality are questionable at best and deeply flawed at worst.
“Rankings become more of a distraction than a resource for educating students on which school is the best fit for them and for their career aims,” said Hans J. Hacker, an assistant professor and co-director of the Pre-Law Center at Arkansas State University. “It’s not the methodology that concerns me any more. It’s the theory behind the entire enterprise.”
Hacker added that he’s become more and more concerned over the past several years as he’s watched several law schools with excellent faculty, fine facilities, outstanding opportunities and career placement services and excellent bar passage rates get hammered in the law school rankings for reasons he simply does not understand.
For 2009, the top five university law programs were Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and New York University.
U.S. News began its graduate-school rankings in the early 1990s. And as soon as they were published, people from all areas of the educational arena — especially law school deans — began to pick them apart.
On the other hand, schools that received the top rankings or those whose rankings improved often sent out press releases to announce the good news — including some of those previously
disgruntled deans.
Most recently, two law school professors attacked the U.S. News rankings for producing “bad choices” in a National Law Journal special section published April 14, 2008, on graduate employment trends.
The authors — Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington Prof. William D. Henderson and University of Illinois College of Law Prof. Andrew P. Morriss — studied the magazine’s rankings. Their consensus was that students should focus more on finding the best law school for the money rather than trying to get into the highest ranked — and often priciest — institution available to them.
“We don’t rank; neither should prospective students. Within regional markets, many schools will have similar outcome profiles,” the authors write. “The question to ask is whether marginally better employment outcomes — for example, 12 percent large-firm employment versus 6 percent — is worth the additional law school debt.”
What other factors are important?
For Brett McKay, the debt of an out-of-state school wasn’t worth it.
“I knew I wanted to live and practice in Oklahoma, so I just applied to schools in the state,” said the third year student at the University of Tulsa.
Tulsa is considered a low-ranking school; it technically is the magazine’s fourth tier. That played no part in McKay’s decision to attend, he said.
“I took a look at them just for curiosity, but honestly they didn’t factor into my decision,” McKay said. “I’ve gotten a great legal education. The law review I’m on is ranked as one of the highest in the country, and I have a summer internship at one of the biggest firms in Tulsa. I don’t think the rating is very fair, but again for me I think it’s totally irrelevant.”
Mary A. Tetro recommends candidates look at factors such as a school’s financial support, alumni contacts, bar passage rates and career services to help determine the best place to attend school.
Tetro is the university coordinator for Pre-Law Services at North Carolina State University. She has worked with pre-law students for eight years. Her school is fairly typical in that there are five accredited law schools — and two more on their way
to accreditation — within a two-hour proximity.
“With such a diverse number of schools, both private and public, students must take many factors into account when they are making the decision to attend law school,” Tetro said. “Because we have so many good options within the area, the rankings really do not factor in any large proportion to all the other factors.”
Hacker also tells students to visit the campus and talk with the staff in admissions and financial aid.
“My advice to students is to ignore those rankings and pretend like everyone who is not admitted to Yale is happy with their placement. Then, go out and find the law school that serves their career interests the best,” Hacker said. “Ultimately, no one cares from where you received your law degree. They care whether you know the law and whether you can make a
persuasive argument.”
Today, Banghart-Linn is a second-year law student at Michigan State University College of Law.
“Between Cooley and MSU, I ended up picking the school that I felt had a better reputation,” Banghart-Linn said. “I was psyched to go to the University of Michigan when I was applying and one big reason was that it is a highly ranked law school. But now I know that I would be miserable if I had gone, with the commute and everything.” n
Karen Dybis is a freelance writer based in Detroit, Mich.
