Show US U.S. News ran rankings kings system not as reliable as it seems Jeffrey Jenkins Special to the Chronicle It has arrived The 2009 US U.S. News and World Report is here with the graduate school rankings For F or many this list serves as a guide to help students know what their potential graduate schools are For others it can be a demeaning list that seems to the schools they are capable of getting into Of all the various graduate school rankings the US U.S. News reports on the law school rankings list listis listis listis is considered by many to be bethe bethe bethe the most controversial It is widely recognized that the US U.S. News rankings are flawed said Robert Adler the associate dean for academic affairs at the SJ Quinney School of Law Whether you consider the list scripture or heresy the following will at least offer insight The US U.S. News law school ranking methodology is a top-down top approach that does not take into consideration crucial factors that determine the quality of a school US U.S. News ranks law schools based on 12 different factors that are weighed in varying degrees The two biggest contributors to the rank of a school are the quality assessment and candidate selectivity categories The quality assessment is gathered by surveying various deans lav law professors judges an any and lawyers across the country Adler said when ht he participates in the quality assessment survey his hi answers regarding other law schools are impressionistic at best The second is a schools school's selectivity which consists of median scores undergraduate and the acceptance percentage of a school Brian Leiter a law professor from the University of Chicago ranked seventh by US U.S. News and alternate law school rankings compiler also has several issues with the methodology used On his Web site Leiter points out that the selectivity category is highly by bylaw bylaw bylaw law schools especially the Median category This criterion is one that favors small schools said Leiter A school that enrolls students each year only needs to recruit 90 students with an score of at least to have havea a strong median This theory also holds true for keeping the median high Leiter also said that more than half of the criteria over criteria over 54 percent percent- that go into the final score can be manipulated by the schools themselves either through outright and undetectable deceit or other devices More than third one-third of the criteria that go into the final score favor small schools and penalize large schools wr wrIn In addition to the criterion gathered US U.S. News does not factor in quality of the faculty Although 3 percent of the rankings depend on to student-to-faculty ratios no data is gathered on the quality of the faculty Any reasonable student would rather be in a larger class with a great professor than be in a small class and have havea a terrible one In addition student input is not considered in the ranking criteria Who Vho better betterto to offer more credibility to toan toan toan an institution than someone who is in the trenches there and experiences it firsthand Further student reviews of the faculty would offer prospective students a lot lotof lotof lotof of insight into the quality of the professors of ofa a given institution In order for the US U.S. News law school rankings to be considered accurate several modifications are necessary An institution is only as good as its faculty and therefore it is necessary to make faculty quality a large percentage of the criteria Student rankings should also be instituted to offer a young and current perspective on the various institutions Although US U.S. News can serve as a helpful guide it is not as reliable as the magazine would like you |