What do you think about the latest US News law school ranking methodology? Forum

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tlsadmin3

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What do you think about the latest US News law school ranking methodology?

Post by tlsadmin3 » Wed Mar 24, 2021 7:18 pm

US News recently updated its ranking methodology for law schools, taking the cost of law schools into account. Yet the decision has been considered somewhat controversial due to US News opting for a metric based on student loans, and not the true cost of tuition. Do you think this new methodology is a step in the right direction? Why or why not? And if not, what would you like to see instead?

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JCougar

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Re: What do you think about the latest US News law school ranking methodology?

Post by JCougar » Thu Apr 01, 2021 5:58 pm

tlsadmin3 wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 7:18 pm
US News recently updated its ranking methodology for law schools, taking the cost of law schools into account. Yet the decision has been considered somewhat controversial due to US News opting for a metric based on student loans, and not the true cost of tuition. Do you think this new methodology is a step in the right direction? Why or why not? And if not, what would you like to see instead?
It's a step in the right direction, as law schools need some accountability for the student debt they generate (it's clear Congress is not going to hold them accountable). There's better metrics for accomplishing that goal, though, such as total cost, not total debt.

One thing that people aren't mentioning is that these new debt metrics mostly took the place of incoming class LSAT/GPA medians. If there's one category in the US News rankings that means much, it's the talent and drive of the incoming class. If you input a talented incoming class, you will likely output a talented class. Since law school barely teaches you any real job skills, this is even more important. From a hiring standpoint, that's almost all that matters.

They should have taken it out of the reputation score portion where law school professors get to rank the prestige of their own schools--that's mostly a meaningless circle jerk.

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