Harvard Law School has withdrawn from the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings over the ... [+]
Harvard Law School announced it is withdrawing from U.S. News and World Report law school rankings, effective this year. In a statement, Harvard Law School Dean John F. Manning said the decision was made because “it has become impossible to reconcile our principles and commitments with the methodology and incentives the U.S. News rankings reflect.”
While noting Yale Law School had announced a similar decision earlier, Manning said the school had been deliberating the issue for the past several months.
“In particular, we have raised concerns about aspects of the U.S. News ranking methodology (also highlighted by our colleagues at Yale) that work against … enhancing the socioeconomic diversity of our classes,” the dean said.
He added that U.S. News ranking methodology also counteracted law schools’ commitments to allocate financial aid to students based on need and, through loan repayment and fellowships, to support graduates interested in careers serving the public interest.
The U.S. News rankings heavily weigh students’ test scores and college GPAs which has created an incentive for law schools to direct more financial aid towards applicants that can fit that bill, Manning said, without regard to their financial need. He also said the methodology does not support graduates who want to pursue public interest careers because the “debt metric” ignores school-funded loan forgiveness programs in calculating student debt.
“We share, and have expressed to U.S. News, the concern,” he said. Professional positions held by those who receive public interest fellowships funded by their home schools “not only provide lawyers to organizations for critical needs, they also often launch a graduate’s career in the public sector,” he added.
The withdrawal of branded universities such as Yale and Harvard may diminish the influence of well-known higher education rankings. In addition, a greater push towards diversity amongst many colleges and universities may not necessarily align with what rankings are perceived as promoting.
The U.S. News process “does not advance the best ideals of legal education or the profession we serve,” Manning said, “and it contradicts the deeply held commitments of Harvard Law School.”
