There were some major changes in methodology this year. The magazine changed how it measured post-calculating rates to exclude students who were not looking for jobs as opposed to graduates were unemployed and looking for jobs. They also changed the timing of the bar-passage rate calculation to look at a single calendar year — rather than split a two-year period. They also took a two-year measurement of reputation for lawyers and judges to avoid spikes or “volatility caused by having a low response rate in one year or another.” Finally, they changed how student scores are measured. Previously, they exclude part-time students but now include such students because “some schools we think were gaming the system. There were some part-time programs that were set up just for US News reporting purposes.” Frankly, these seem to be reasonable changes.
George Washington fell from 20 to 28 in the rankings and the faculty is studying how the change in methodology hit us so hard (our various scores have remained the same or improved from last year). It appears that we are better in smaller doses since our part-time program is ranked second in the nation. Our Dean has pointed out that many schools in the top 25 have had this type of sudden drop — only to readjust with a rise the following year. Nevertheless, it is a hard hit for the school. What is interesting is that the new methodologies only resulted in a reduction of 2 -3 points on the overall score which resulted in the drop in ranking. That shows how closely packed these schools have become.
While academics often criticize the rankings as meaningless and a poor measure of the quality of a school, I believe that they serve a positive purpose. When I went to law school, there were no objective rankings or reliable information on schools. It was just world of mouth and street reputation. This has given students information to compare schools, including reputation of academics and judges (which should be given more weight in the rankings).
Indiana had the biggest jump of 13 places to 23rd. Davis (+9 to 35th) and North Carolina (+8 to 30th) also had impressive increases. Notably, the Utah schools did well with Utah going up six places to 45th and BYU going up five places to 41st. The worst fall was Colorado by 13 spots to 45th. Washington & Lee and Arizona also fell five spots.
The drop this year is, in my view, not an accurate placement of the school, but as a Cubs fan I am patient. Here are the rankings:
1. Yale
2. Harvard
3. Stanford
4. Columbia
5. NYU
6. Berkeley
6. (tie) Chicago
8. Penn
9. Michigan
10. Duke
10. (tie) Northwestern
10. (tie) UVA
13. Cornell
14. Georgetown
15. UCLA
15. (tie) Texas
17. Vanderbilt
18. USC
19. Wash U
20. BU
20. (tie) Emory
20. (tie) Minnesota
23. Indiana
23. (tie) Illinois
23. (tie) Notre Dame
26. Boston College
26. (tie) Iowa
28. William & Mary
28. (tie) George Washington
30. Fordham
30(tie) Alabama
30. (tie) UNC
30. (tie) Washington & Lee
35. Ohio State
35. (tie) UC Davis
35. (tie) Georgia
35. (tie) Wisconsin.
For all of the rankings, click here.