University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School said it would join other top-tier law schools in no longer participating in U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Penn Law said in a statement that the decision was made “after careful consideration” and it would not submit data for this year as part of the ranking process.
“In the interest of greater transparency, we will make relevant data public so that anyone can see the inputs that make Penn Carey Law a leading law school” and how its alumni launch careers in different sectors of the legal profession.
As for the reason why, Penn Law cited views expressed previously by other schools. Specifically, it said the “current U.S. News ranking methodology is unnecessarily secretive and contrary to important parts of our mission, including Penn Carey Law’s increasing investment in need-based financial aid and public interest lawyering. We have directly and frankly shared these concerns with U.S. News and hope they will consider significant and meaningful changes in how data is calculated and published.”
On Nov. 16, Yale Law School and Harvard Law School announced they were opting out of the annual list. The programs were soon followed by other top 10 law schools from Stanford University, Columbia University, University of California-Berkley and Georgetown University. Penn Law had said it was considering its options.
In announcing that the school would no longer participate, Harvard Law Dean John F. Manning cited U.S. News’ rankings’ methodology and confusing metrics.
“It has become impossible to reconcile our principles and commitments with the methodology and incentives the U.S. News rankings reflect,” Manning said.
The rankings can be helpful, Manning said, but could also influence schools to make decisions that “undercut student choice and harm the interests of potential students.”
The U.S. News rankings are used to recruit top students on the front end and help place students on the back end. But the report came under new criticism this year when Columbia University admitted giving incorrect data to the publication, which caused it to plummet in the rankings. And there has been a growing chorus in higher education that has questioned the value of the rankings. The factors in the rankings are: peer assessments, lawyer and judge assessments, undergraduate GPAs, LSAT scores, acceptance rates, student/faculty ratio, percentage of graduates employed at graduation and at 10 months after graduation, and the bar exam passage rate compared to the average in the jurisdiction where graduates most frequently go on to practice law.
In the latest annual rankings reported in March, Penn Law claimed sole possession of the No. 6 spot after being tied at that position with New York University last year. It trailed only the law schools at Yale, Stanford, University of Chicago, Columbia and Harvard.
Of the 192 law schools on the list, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law (No. 56), Temple University Beasley School of Law (No. 63), Drexel University’s Kline School of Law (No. 78), Rutgers Law School (No. 86) and Widener University’s Delaware Law School (unranked) have not decided to stop participating in the U.S. News rankings.
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Penn joins other top-tier law schools in halting participation in U.S. News rankings – The Business Journals
