Yale Law School Abandons U.S. News Rankings, Citing Flawed Methodology

“The U.S. News rankings are profoundly flawed,” Yale Law School Dean

Heather Gerken

said. “Its approach not only fails to advance the legal profession, but stands squarely in the way of progress.”

Specifically, she said, the rankings devalue programs that encourage low-paying public-interest jobs and reward schools that dangle scholarships for high LSAT scores, rather than for financial need.

A representative from U.S. News didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. News has been ranking colleges and graduate programs since the 1980s, quickly growing into the definitive guide for many college-bound families and students interested in graduate and professional school. For decades, schools have highlighted their placement in promotional materials, and some university leaders even get financial incentives if their schools move up the list.

But behind closed doors, administrators have long criticized the U.S. News rankings for focusing on inputs, like high test scores, over outcomes, and for accepting schools’ self-reported data without any audit function. Still, many have been wary of walking away, knowing how powerful a top rank can be as a lure for prospective students and for employers looking to hire new talent.

Yale Law School has held the No. 1 spot every year since 1990.

Ms. Gerken said she understands the rankings’ pull, but they are useful “only when they follow sound methodology and confine their metrics to what the data can reasonably capture.”

Ms. Gerken said U.S. News appeared to classify graduates as unemployed if they had school-funded fellowships to take jobs in public interest fields, or if they went on to enroll in a Ph.D. program or other graduate school. She said the ranking also doesn’t give schools credit for having generous loan-forgiveness programs, which can erase students’ debt loads.

About five years ago, she said, she and a group of other law-school deans wrote to implore U.S. News to rethink how it categorizes public-interest fellowships. That outreach didn’t yield any notable change, she said.

“Any dean who creates these risks getting punished in the rankings,” she said of the fellowships. “This is a moment in time for us to really reflect on what our values are.”

With 20% of the overall ranking score based on median LSAT or GRE test scores and undergraduate grade-point averages, Ms. Gerken said, the ranking also hurts schools that want to admit promising students who couldn’t afford test-prep courses and rewards schools that give millions in scholarships to students with the best scores, not the most financial need.

U.S. News has faced a string of setbacks in recent years, including a criminal conviction against a former Temple University business-school dean who helped falsify numbers in an effort to get a better ranking.

Earlier this year, the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education said a dean directed administrators to omit information in order to boost its placement.

Meanwhile, Columbia University said in September that it had submitted inaccurate data to the ranking, confirming allegations a faculty member made earlier in the year.

Columbia tied with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last year as the No. 2 Best National University. This year, after the revelation about the inaccurate data, it landed at No. 18.

Yale Law is known as a training ground for legal scholars and prominent lawyers, with many graduates going on to high-profile federal and Supreme Court clerkships.

In recent months, the New Haven, Conn., school has become a flashpoint for free-speech battles, after students disrupted a March panel discussion on civil liberties that featured both progressive and conservative speakers. That prompted Laurence Silberman, senior judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to warn his colleagues to “carefully consider” whether students who interrupted the event should be disqualified for clerkships. Judge Silberman died in October.

At least one other conservative judge has since followed suit, saying they won’t hire Yale Law graduates as clerks. 

Ms. Gerken has said the school is committed to creating an environment that fosters free speech.

Write to Melissa Korn at [email protected]

“The U.S. News rankings are profoundly flawed,” Yale Law School Dean

Heather Gerken

said. “Its approach not only fails to advance the legal profession, but stands squarely in the way of progress.”

Specifically, she said, the rankings devalue programs that encourage low-paying public-interest jobs and reward schools that dangle scholarships for high LSAT scores, rather than for financial need.

A representative from U.S. News didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. News has been ranking colleges and graduate programs since the 1980s, quickly growing into the definitive guide for many college-bound families and students interested in graduate and professional school. For decades, schools have highlighted their placement in promotional materials, and some university leaders even get financial incentives if their schools move up the list.

But behind closed doors, administrators have long criticized the U.S. News rankings for focusing on inputs, like high test scores, over outcomes, and for accepting schools’ self-reported data without any audit function. Still, many have been wary of walking away, knowing how powerful a top rank can be as a lure for prospective students and for employers looking to hire new talent.

Yale Law School has held the No. 1 spot every year since 1990.

Ms. Gerken said she understands the rankings’ pull, but they are useful “only when they follow sound methodology and confine their metrics to what the data can reasonably capture.”

Ms. Gerken said U.S. News appeared to classify graduates as unemployed if they had school-funded fellowships to take jobs in public interest fields, or if they went on to enroll in a Ph.D. program or other graduate school. She said the ranking also doesn’t give schools credit for having generous loan-forgiveness programs, which can erase students’ debt loads.

About five years ago, she said, she and a group of other law-school deans wrote to implore U.S. News to rethink how it categorizes public-interest fellowships. That outreach didn’t yield any notable change, she said.

“Any dean who creates these risks getting punished in the rankings,” she said of the fellowships. “This is a moment in time for us to really reflect on what our values are.”

With 20% of the overall ranking score based on median LSAT or GRE test scores and undergraduate grade-point averages, Ms. Gerken said, the ranking also hurts schools that want to admit promising students who couldn’t afford test-prep courses and rewards schools that give millions in scholarships to students with the best scores, not the most financial need.

U.S. News has faced a string of setbacks in recent years, including a criminal conviction against a former Temple University business-school dean who helped falsify numbers in an effort to get a better ranking.

Earlier this year, the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education said a dean directed administrators to omit information in order to boost its placement.

Meanwhile, Columbia University said in September that it had submitted inaccurate data to the ranking, confirming allegations a faculty member made earlier in the year.

Columbia tied with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last year as the No. 2 Best National University. This year, after the revelation about the inaccurate data, it landed at No. 18.

Yale Law is known as a training ground for legal scholars and prominent lawyers, with many graduates going on to high-profile federal and Supreme Court clerkships.

In recent months, the New Haven, Conn., school has become a flashpoint for free-speech battles, after students disrupted a March panel discussion on civil liberties that featured both progressive and conservative speakers. That prompted Laurence Silberman, senior judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to warn his colleagues to “carefully consider” whether students who interrupted the event should be disqualified for clerkships. Judge Silberman died in October.

At least one other conservative judge has since followed suit, saying they won’t hire Yale Law graduates as clerks. 

Ms. Gerken has said the school is committed to creating an environment that fosters free speech.

Write to Melissa Korn at [email protected]