Sometimes No (US) News is Good News

Saturday, November 19, 2022

No news. Several law schools, including Berkeley Law, are dropping out of the ratings race at US News and World Reports:

From Inside Higher Ed:

Yale University’s law school ranks at the top of U.S. News & World Report’s list of the best law schools. It has ranked on top throughout the decades that U.S. News has ranked law schools, every single year. Yale hasn’t typically boasted about its rankings—the top institutions in the rankings rarely do—but it participated in the rankings process. But that changed Wednesday when Yale Law’s dean announced that the law school would no longer take part in the process. A detailed post by Dean Heather K. Gerken called the rankings “profoundly flawed—they disincentivize programs that support public interest careers, champion need-based aid, and welcome working-class students into the profession.” ...Harvard University’s law school made a similar announcement a few hours later...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/11/17/harvard-andyale-law-will-not-participate-us-news-rankings.

... On Thursday, the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, joined the movement. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school, wrote, “Rankings have the meaning that we give them as a community. I do not want to pretend they do not. And rankings will exist with or without our participation. The question becomes, then, do we think that there is a benefit to participation in the U.S. News process that outweighs the costs? The answer, we feel, is no.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2022/11/18/berkeley-law-schooljoins-move-against-%E2%80%98us-news%E2%80%99.

T o h e a r t h e t e x t a b o v e , c l i c k o n t h e l i n k b e l o w : https://ia601402.us.archive.org/25/items/big-ten/law%20rank.mp3