Amidst a stream of law schools withdrawing from the U.S. News ranking, University of Chicago and Cornell University have just confirmed that they plan to continue their participation.
In an email sent to students, University of Chicago Law School Dean Thomas Miles wrote, “Most of the data we supply to U.S. News is already public, and the rest is information we have no reason to withhold. The rankings of academic institutions clearly have a readership, and we wish to prevent the use of inaccurate information.” Making a similar argument, Cornell Law Dean Jens David Ohlin, writes in a published statement, “My own view is that the rankings distort academic decision-making, fail to adequately capture institutional quality, and create perverse incentives that are not in the best interests of students or the legal profession. However, withdrawal from the rankings process will not have the desired impact that many assume it will have.”
The only law schools within the top 15 that have not yet commented on how they will proceed with the ranking are University of Pennsylvania (Carey), NYU, and UVA. Ten law schools have joined the boycott of the U.S. News ranking: Berkeley, Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Michigan, Northwestern, Stanford, UCLA, and Yale.
Update 12/6/2022: University of Pennsylvania (Carey) and NYU have announced that they will withdraw from the rankings. UVA has announced that it will continue to participate in the rankings.