I've been asked too many times to count to comment on the U.S. News 2025 law school rankings release a few days ago. And for sure, I have felt that tug to do so at times, especially as I have had the rankings for weeks and the easy business move would have been to post them. But I did not put them up when I received them early, I have not commented on the mistakes made during the embargo period, I have not written about them, and I have not returned a single media request for comment. All of the above are intentional decisions despite the fact that doing so would be good for our business, as we are considered the foremost firm that understands the impact and flaws of U.S. News in higher education. What's at stake is the degree to which law schools are, in some ways, beholden to rankings (I podcasted about this here and here with UVA Law’s Assistant Dean for Admissions Natalie Rajkovic Blazer; both episodes have been transcribed), as they are not just on the minds of applicants as they make their decisions, but they also could cause law schools, colleges, and universities to suffer tremendously financially and/or go out of business, sending students home and laying off thousands of hard-working employees who have dedicated their lives to teaching and mentoring.
Every year, there are perceived “winners” (schools that go up) and “losers” (down) in the rankings. I used to fall into this category of thought when, early in my career, I was tasked with being the rankings expert at the three law schools where I worked. But the more I have come to see not just the flawed methodology that comes into the rankings but also how they negatively impact behavior in real-time, the more I have come to believe that there are, in fact, no winners apart from U.S. News itself. Schools that go “up” still lose, as often this can cause spending in arbitrary and even harmful areas where money is becoming more limited, and student success should be the only metric that matters. If you gained 5 places in the rankings, are you better than you were two days ago? If you dropped 10, are you “10 worse” than the school at 40 when you are 50? Of course not. Even if the rankings were well-constructed, this wouldn't be close to true, and we all know this instinctively. And, for schools that go “up” this year, they may go down next due to the whims of those who change the rankings methodology. Which is why schools that overly celebrate rankings gains often regret having done so. Again, there are no winners here.
But those who "lose" more than all others are the stakeholders who I care about the most—namely, applicants. Why are law school rankings released right around seat deposit deadline dates? You could not pick a worse time in a 365-day calendar year to do so. Applicants chat on social media and message boards and are often the most sensitive to small, one-year fluctuations. It makes sense; if you are about to make a huge life-long choice and drop an enormous amount of money, it is human instinct to worry about these changes, even though they do not reflect any meaningful reality but rather a need for a publication to force changes in order to sell subscriptions. If the rankings were always the same, their release would not be news, nor would anyone purchase their product. The decision-remorse felt by an applicant right now picking a school that they love but that lost multiple spots in the rankings is real. I spoke to one such applicant this morning. They went from excited about where they were depositing to attend to now being doubtful and despondent. This, more than anything, was the catalyst for my finally speaking on the rankings. They should be just as excited to attend an exceptional school today as they were three days ago, even if a rankings scheme constructed by someone who likely can't name a single 1L class implies that they should not be.
Rankings are not going anywhere. The human mind craves things that are given to us ordinally. Even at their worst, U.S. News rankings for higher education provide a compass of sorts. Of course, not all compasses are accurate; some are cheaply made with inferior materials. I find the comparison apt, because the material that makes up the current U.S. News law school rankings is inferior.
I have long called for more diffuse rankings, and Dean Donald Tobin now has his (in an “alpha phase”), which can be found on Paul Caron’s blog. We have a personalized law school ranking tool where you pick only the metrics that matter to you. There are plenty of others.
We are already in a higher education recession. Many schools will have to get off the rankings game carousel or be crushed financially. The problem is right here, right now, but so is the solution. Less attention to the U.S. News rankings and a bit more attention not just to the many others, but to attending a law school or college that is the right fit for your individual preferences and aspirations.