There are few rites of passage in legal education more enduring than the annual ritual of obsessing over the U.S. News & World Report rankings. And yet, according to a new survey from Kaplan, the people who arguably should care the most — law school admissions officers — are increasingly willing to admit the rankings might be kind of… nonsense.
A full 58 percent of admissions officers say the rankings have “lost some of their prestige over the last couple of years.” Not surprising, since Yale Law’s decision to nope out of the rankings in 2022 led to a pile on and a change in methodology that tanked the OG ranking’s credibility. That’s down slightly from 62 percent in Kaplan’s last survey, but still up from 51 percent in 2023 — which is just a long, slow march toward “we all see the emperor, and yes, he’s definitely underdressed.”
The quotes from admissions officers read like a group therapy session where everyone knows the problem but no one wants to be the first to log off.
Rankings are a “double-edged sword.” That are “helpful for students if they are used properly, but I don’t think students fully comprehend rankings.” They’re “biased.” They’re “contrived.” They “promote the same T14.” They “create an opportunity gap.” They “limit student choices.”
And yet schools keep playing along because the alternative is worse. One admissions officer admitted their higher-ranked specialty program could take a hit if they opted out, which is the rankings equivalent of “I’d quit social media, but my brand would suffer.”
Kaplan’s Krystin Major puts it a little more diplomatically:
For law school leaders, the rankings can influence everything from student recruitment to alumni donations, and in some cases, even their own job security. Some admissions officers have joked with us that they stay up just past midnight when the rankings drop, unable to wait until morning, because they know that by sunrise their inboxes will be flooded with either ecstatic or apoplectic messages from colleagues and law school leaders. It’s important to note that while a few schools have withdrawn in protest and many acknowledge the rankings’ flaws, most still participate, showing just how powerful they remain. We continue to tell students that while the rankings can offer helpful data on employment outcomes and starting salaries, they’re just one piece of the puzzle. We advise them to focus on the law schools that fit their long-term professional goals, not just their rank.
Meanwhile, the broader context makes this all feel even more absurd. Law school applications are surging, up 11 percent from last year and a whopping 32 percent from two years ago, according to the Law School Admission Council. Whether that’s driven by recession anxiety, political chaos, or the enduring belief that a JD is a personality trait remains an open question. What’s not in question is that applicants are still using rankings as a north star, even as the people behind the curtain are waving frantically and mouthing, “maybe don’t.”
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