3 reasons Yale Law was right to quit the U.S. News rankings
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Last week, Yale Law School, where I teach, announced it was pulling out of U.S. News & World Report’s annual law school rankings. Many people were shocked. After all, Yale has perennially been No. 1 in the 30-plus years since the rankings first appeared. Why quit a system that has brought so much glory?
Because the U.S. News rankings are somewhere between silly and demented — they harm law schools, applicants and graduates. As somebody who has been reading law school applications and advising prospective students for almost a decade, I could offer dozens of reasons for ending the rankings. But here are the top three.
1. The list encourages students to make decisions based on the rankings — and nothing else.
2. The rankings discourage schools from helping graduates pursue public interest careers.
3. I’ve saved the most important problem for last: The rankings discourage schools from admitting students with low LSAT scores.
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