US News Tier System No More? Forum

[PaxTecvm]

Dear gang:

Am I missing something, or has US News just done away with its entire tier system? Now all of a sudden I find that each of the Top 100 (not just the top 50) are ranked "1st Tier" and *every* other law school not in the top 100 ranked 2nd Tier?! Whatever happened to Tiers, 1, 2, 3, and 4? I find the same is true of all their other school rankings.

What gives? Is this just their way of saying "Everyone's a winner!"?

[rman1201]

Dear gang:

Am I missing something, or has US News just done away with its entire tier system? Now all of a sudden I find that each of the Top 100 (not just the top 50) are ranked "1st Tier" and *every* other law school not in the top 100 ranked 2nd Tier?! Whatever happened to Tiers, 1, 2, 3, and 4? I find the same is true of all their other school rankings.

What gives? Is this just their way of saying "Everyone's a winner!"?

Yes. Stetson is now in the same tier as Harvard, so they're pretty much both the same.

[Fred_McGriff]

T1 = 1-50, T2 = 51 - 100, T3 = up to whatever they ranked, T4 = the rest.

[duckmoney]

T1 = 1-50, T2 = 51 - 100, T3 = up to whatever they ranked, T4 = the rest.

This is true and always will be.

The more interesting question is whether the typical mini-tiers, such as T14 or T18, have been cast aside by these new rankings. However, there are about 3 other threads discussing this right now.

\thread

[PaxTecvm]

Fred:

Where do you get that ranking scheme from? Check our the rankings for yourself:

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... w-rankings

The Tier system seems to have disappeared completely. How does one tell which is a third or fourth tier school, for example, and why aren't the top 100 tiered?

[danquayle]

Fred:

Where do you get that ranking scheme from? Check our the rankings for yourself:

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... w-rankings

The Tier system seems to have disappeared completely. How does one tell which is a third or fourth tier school, for example, and why aren't the top 100 tiered?

Fred is not talking about anything US News is going. Fred is talking about what Fred and the rest of the legal education market will do. Just like T-14 and T-18 are informal creations of observers to the US News rankings, so have the T1, T2, T3, T4 distinctions. In my mind, and most everyone else, we'll always consider what Fred said to be valid.

[PaxTecvm]

Dan:

Fair enough, but how do we tell the 3rd tiers from the 4th?

[holydonkey]

Dan:

Fair enough, but how do we tell the 3rd tiers from the 4th?

they went to college

[theavrock]

Dan:

Fair enough, but how do we tell the 3rd tiers from the 4th?

Who cares. At that level its all the same.

Is #121 that different than 171

[txadv11]

Dan:

Fair enough, but how do we tell the 3rd tiers from the 4th?

Who cares. At that level its all the same.

Is #121 that different than 171

Considering it stops a 145, probably so.

[Fred_McGriff]

T3 and T4 probably don't matter as a meaningful distinction, except there probably are some T3s that aren't bad decisions. South Carolina, Montana, Ole Miss, North Dakota, Idaho, etc. if you want to stay in those states are all cheap and tied into local legal markets.

[AreJay711]

Well, I think it is a good thing so people don't think there is a real difference between Chapman and McGeorge for example.

[overunderachiever]

According to abovethelaw, there is only Tier 1 (1-100) and Tier 2 (101-150) and then unranked

[AreJay711]

According to abovethelaw, there is only Tier 1 (1-100) and Tier 2 (101-150) and then unranked

[txadv11]

I think the biggest change is the fact that you can now differentiate between #101 (formally tier 3) and unranked (formally tier 4)

[theavrock]

Dan:

Fair enough, but how do we tell the 3rd tiers from the 4th?

Who cares. At that level its all the same.

Is #121 that different than 171

Considering it stops a 145, probably so.

The point is the same regardless.

School 100 vs. School 137 who the fuck cares

[Bildungsroman]

Dan:

Fair enough, but how do we tell the 3rd tiers from the 4th?

Who gives a shit? No point in making two tiers of absolute shithole schools that force their students into debt peonage.

[TheTopBloke]

Dear gang:

Am I missing something, or has US News just done away with its entire tier system? Now all of a sudden I find that each of the Top 100 (not just the top 50) are ranked "1st Tier" and *every* other law school not in the top 100 ranked 2nd Tier?! Whatever happened to Tiers, 1, 2, 3, and 4? I find the same is true of all their other school rankings.

What gives? Is this just their way of saying "Everyone's a winner!"?

it has always been that way.

[mettasutta]

Dan:

Fair enough, but how do we tell the 3rd tiers from the 4th?

Who gives a shit? No point in making two tiers of absolute shithole schools that force their students into debt peonage.

Not all tier 3/4 schools are a poor investment. What about crazy cheap state flagship schools located in isolated markets (Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Maine, etc.) that just so happen to be ranked in the third tier, but are otherwise solid options for people who want to practice in those regions? It would be idiotic for a resident of Wyoming who wanted to practice in her home state to go into $200,000+ debt for GW or Vandy when she could attend a so-called "TTT" like U of Wyoming for a fraction of the cost and still enjoy decent job prospects. The third/fourth tier schools that are problematic are those like Florida Coastal and NYLS (steep tuition, over-saturated markets, high attrition, etc.)

[alexonfyre]

I don't like that USN got rid of tiers. I don't have time to look up all this irrelevant information on law schools, I need to be able to judge a school without having to go through all of the trouble of reading about it and posting on forums. The same way I can look at a Mexican and tell that he isn't from here, doesn't speak English, and lives with his extended family of 16 cousins.