I, for one, welcome our US News overlords

Outside of dentists’ waiting rooms, does anyone read US New & World Report ? But for its annual school rankings issues, wouldn't the magazine be a completely moribund also-ran?

Anyway, according to yesterday’s New York Lawyer (free reg. req'd), U.S. News “may” change how it calculates its law school rankings and that “some law deans are not happy about it.”  The possible change would be to how the category “undergraduate grade-point average and LSAT scores of the incoming class” is calculated.  Currently, U.S. News counts only the grades and test scores of full-time students.  The magazine is considering “pooling the scores of part-time students after hearing allegations that some schools move students with lower grades and test scores into part-time programs so they can report better data.”   

The article contains this remarkable quote:

“ ‘If U.S. News starts combining the scores of full-time and part-time students, the pressure to end evening schools will become overwhelming," said William Treanor, dean of Fordham School of Law in New York, which has had a part-time program for nearly a century.’ ”

Aside from the fact that this seems a tacit admission of the ‘gaming’ charge—doesn’t the statement’s premise not seem—what's the word—insane? 

Such is the influence of the US News rankings that a tweak in their methodology  would prompt (presumably non-hysterical?) speculation that a venerable and thriving degree program might be junked?  Sorry, but if Dean Treanor is serious, then the inmates are running the asylum.

Anyway, anyone in the know realizes that there is only one law school rankings scheme that

“actually measures criteria that matter.”

                             -posted by brian  (proud alum of fordham’s evening program)

US News tells this person what to think about law schools