Yale and Harvard announced on Wednesday that they will no longer be participating in the U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of colleges and universities. They cited their dissatisfaction with the methodology used to compile the list as the reason for their decision, which represents the most scathing criticism of the rankings to date.
The dean of Yale Law School, Heather Gerkin, said in a statement on Wednesday that “The US News rankings are inherently flawed – they disincentivize programs that encourage public interest careers, champion need-based funding, and welcome working-class students into the profession.” We have reached a stage where the ranking system is compromising the legal profession’s essential values.
“It has become hard to square our ideals and objectives with the methodology and incentives the US News rankings reflect,” said John Manning, dean of Harvard Law School, in a statement.
This year, the US News rankings, which prospective students, parents, and employers use to evaluate the quality of colleges, have already come under intense criticism with some people challenging the list’s objectivity.
On Thursday, the University of California, Berkeley Law School joined the law schools at Harvard and Yale in dropping out of the rankings due to worries that they penalize initiatives to entice candidates from various backgrounds.
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the Berkeley Law School, stated in a letter that was posted online on Thursday that there was no advantage to taking part in the rankings that outweigh the drawbacks.
In order to increase its ranking on the list, the university, according to a professor at Columbia, allegedly provided the magazine with false information in February. Columbia acknowledged the mistakes and announced that it will refrain from providing data for the year’s rankings.
Following their own estimates, which included some federal statistics, US News placed Columbia as 18th, a sharp decline from second place the year before.
Since 1990, the magazine has published an annual ranking of the top law schools. The list is compiled using a variety of factors, including selectivity, school resources, and job success.
Since the list’s inception, Yale has held the top spot and Harvard has constantly ranked in the top five. US News & World Report receives information from law schools for its rankings.
Gerkin remarked that despite repeated requests from law school deans for US News to alter their methodology—noting that the publication is for-profit—the publication still “applies a faulty formula that inhibits law schools from providing the greatest legal education possible.”
Gerkin contends that the rankings have made law schools less likely to help students looking to work in the public interest. Students who are enrolled in other graduate programs or who have earned public interest fellowships from the school are “essentially labeled as unemployed” and have a negative impact on a school’s rating.
When determining how much debt students graduate with, US News does not account for loan forgiveness programs that are aimed at those with public interest occupations, such as those working for the government or non-profit organizations.
This outdated strategy deters law schools around the nation from assisting students who want to work in the nonprofit sector, according to the speaker.
Schools are motivated to reject excellent candidates who might not have had the resources to take test preparation classes because of the emphasis on selectivity, specifically the LSAT and GPA scores of admitted students, Gerkin said.
Instead, schools are urged to compete for outstanding students with merit-based aid that does not focus on those who require the most financial assistance.
This view was repeated by Manning in his own statement, which was made public shortly after Gerkin.
He said that while “Harvard and Yale have both resisted the attraction toward so-called merit aid,” it has become more commonplace and is eating resources that could be dispersed more directly based on need.
Manning added that while quantifying the amount of debt that law school students have can be useful, schools can minimize the appearance of how much debt their students have by admitting more students who do not require financial aid in the first place rather than providing more financial aid.
Eric Gertier, CEO of US News, responded to the statements made to CNN by both organizations by stating that the magazine will “continue to fulfill our journalistic purpose of guaranteeing that individuals can depend on the clearest and most authentic information in making a decision.“
This most recent statement does not alter our goal, which is to ensure that law schools be held responsible for the instruction they will provide to these students, he said.
It’s unknown if other law schools are thinking about following Harvard and Yale’s example. The No. 2 rated Stanford Law School informed Reuters that it is giving the issue “careful thought.“
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