Like most other recovering prestige addicts, I evaluated where to go to law school primarily based on one thing and one thing only: the U.S. News and World Report (USNWR) law school rankings. The USNWR law school rankings has had legal education in a chokehold for over thirty years now, so it was a shock to everyone when law schools--including Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and Georgetown--began ceremoniously announcing that they were leaving the rankings (whatever that even means). In this episode, I wonder why a for-profit magazine's rankings has had such power and influence in legal education, dive into the methodology used by the USNWR, and contemplate whether these explosive mic drops from (let's admit it, the top-ranked) law schools will have a lasting impact on the legal industry at all.

[timestamps]

0:00 - intro

1:52 - how we're conditioned to love rankings

12:05 - USNWR history & methodology

17:53 - but will it even matter?

[references]

https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/dean-gerken-why-yale-law-school-leaving-us-news-world-report-rankings

https://www.law.com/2022/11/22/with-duke-law-there-are-now-9-t14-law-schools-boycotting-us-news-rankings/

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/law-schools-methodology

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2022-11-18/us-news-will-still-rank-law-schools-as-georgetown-joins-boycott

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/us/law-school-rankings-test-scores.html

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