Top Law Schools

Ok, so back in the day the big three law schools were Harvard Yale Michigan. Of course this was all like back when I was a year or two old and basically before the USNWR started ranking law schools, but what happened? How did Michigan drop so much?

http://www.prelawhandbook.com/law_schoo ... _1987_1999

It seems at the very start of the rankings, in 1987, USNWR still put Michigan at number 3. But then 3 years later when they next did their rankings it went straight down to 7.

Was the perception of Michigan just inflated like 20~30 years ago? Or did USNWR just tear them down for some odd reason?

I would argue that the fact that Michigan was ranked 7th in 1990 and that it is ranked 9th now kind of shows that it hasn't gone down significantly. ^_^ GOOO BLUE!!

For one year Michigan was in that position. The next year, USNWR changed their formula. Since then, Michigan has always been in the 7-10 range. There was no tragic decline in Michigan's stature.

I read somewhere, and I can't remember where, that when USNWR first did their rankings, they used a different methodology that put Michigan at #3. When they switched to a different one after 1987, it moved them down to about where they are now, and where they've been ever since the methodology switch. So, the argument goes, Michigan has been more or less of constant quality as an institution, it's the rankings system that changed.

Hmm, the thing about rankings might be true, but it seems like past perception of Michigan Law was much higher than it was now. Like there were a bunch of Supreme Court Justices from Michigan in the past, and in fact totaling them up I think only HLS, YLS, and CLS have more.

However, doesn't seem to be the case anymore, so just wondering if other schools overtook Michigan or it declined on its own.