U.S. News & World Report Delays Release of Law School and Medical School Rankings Indefinitely
For the second time, U.S. News & World Report has postponed the publication of its law school and medical school rankings, yet to announce a new release date. According to a message posted on their website on Wednesday, U.S. News stated that they are currently addressing a significant amount of inquiries from schools and will publish the updated rankings as soon as this work is completed. Originally scheduled to be released on April 18th, the orders were rescheduled to April 25th due to an unprecedented number of school inquiries requesting data updates after the collection period.
Reasons Behind the Delay and Concerns Raised by Law School Deans
U.S. News & World Report acknowledged a higher-than-expected level of interest in its rankings, including from schools that did not participate in the survey, resulting in a delay in the release of law and medical school rankings indefinitely. The publication will release the remaining graduate school rankings, including business, engineering, and nursing programs, on April 25. This is the first time U.S. News has delayed the law school rankings, causing considerable concern among law school deans. The delay follows a widespread rankings boycott by elite law schools that began in November and spread to some medical schools. This year, almost a third of U.S. law schools did not provide any internal data for the rankings, including 12 of the top 14 schools that criticized U.S. News for the methodology that they claimed negatively impacted student diversity and affordability.
Following the boycott, U.S. News revamped the law school rankings methodology to rely mainly on American Bar Association (ABA) data, placing greater importance on bar passage and employment and reducing the emphasis on Law School Admission Test scores. However, after receiving a preview of the rankings on April 11, some law schools expressed concern about possible errors in the ranking data and requested a thorough review. Although Harvard Law no longer participates in the rankings, Assistant Dean Marva de Marothy wrote to U.S. News, which she shared with Reuters, to demand accurate, publicly available numbers if U.S. News intends to make representations about their law school.
