Law School Access — Blog — Apply Point Admissions Consulting

Earlier this week, U.S. News announced that it will make updates to the 2023-2024 Best Law Schools ranking in response to the public criticism and boycott of its rankings by a number of leading law schools. In an open letter to law deans, which was published on Monday just prior to the start of the American Association of Law Schools meeting, Robert Morse, Chief Data Strategist, and Stephanie Salmon, Senior Vice President of Data and Information Strategy, described the organization’s reaction to the recent public discourse. They wrote that the U.S. News interviewed more than 100 law school deans and representatives to gain a better understanding of the criticisms and strengths of the current ranking. Generally, they said, complaints were centered around a few key topics, including the weight placed on peer assessment surveys, a need for greater emphasis on outcome measures (e.g. bar passage, employment), re-consideration of the weight assigned to various employment outcomes, and a review of student expenditures and student debt metrics. The organization also conducted an internal review.

As a result, U.S. News will make the following changes to the ranking:

All law schools will be ranked using publicly available data required by the ABA, regardless of whether school representatives respond to the annual U.S. News survey. However, U.S. News will publish in-depth profiles for those schools that do respond to the survey.
There will be updates to the methodology that increase the weight on outcome measures and reduce the weight given to peer assessment survey results. Additionally, the employment outcomes measure will be updated to give full-weight to those who receive fellowships (including school-funded fellowships) or enroll in further graduate studies.
U.S. News will make more of the collected data available to students in order to allow them to make more informed comparisons between law schools.
Over time, the organization will work alongside key stakeholders to better recognize and represent other key factors such as loan forgiveness/repayment and student aid/financial assistance, as well as socio-economic and diversity metrics.

For some deans, the updates are still not enough to reverse their position. Heather Gerkin, Dean of Yale Law School, spoke to Law.com. “Having a window into the operations and decision-making process at U.S. News in recent weeks has only cemented our decision to stop participating in the rankings,” Gerkin said. Similarly, University of New Hampshire Law School Dean, Megan Carpenter, noted to Law.com that because U.S. News did not specify the modifications they plan to make to the formula, it raises concerns that the response “simply devolves into an exercise about tweaking their monolithic formula.”

The AccessLex Institute published its 2022 Legal Education Data Deck to showcase the latest trends in the access, affordability, and value of law school. AccessLex, a nonprofit institution with a mission to improve access to legal education and maximize its affordability and value, creates the data deck using publicly available datasets. We have provided key insights from the deck below.

Applicant Volume

Between 2017 and 2021 females made up the majority of applicants, and the proportion of male applicants declined each year during this period. Women accounted for 56 percent of applicants and men made up 42 percent in 2021. Correspondingly, women’s admissions rates were lower than men’s. In 2021, however, women’s admissions rate climbed to 70 percent (+2 percentage points from 2020), which was the first year-over-year increase in admissions rate for either men or women since 2014.
In 2017, female enrollment surpassed males. Since then, female enrollment has increased annually while male enrollment has declined.
In 2021, just under two-thirds of law degrees were awarded to white students (63 percent), while about a quarter went to students who identified as Hispanic/Latino (12 percent), Black/African-American (7 percent), and Asian (6 percent).

Costs

In 2021, there was a significant decrease in the average cost of full-time tuition and fees. Using 2021 dollars to compare costs across time, private school expenses decreased to a level not recorded since 2016, public school (resident) costs decreased to 2014 levels, and public school (non-resident) decreased to a level below 2013.
Between 2013 and 2020, there was a significant increase in the median grant amount awarded to full-time students. Using 2021 dollars to compare, the median grant amount increased from $15,800 in 2013 to $22,100 in 2020.
The share of full-time students receiving grant awards also increased between 2011 and 2019. In 2011, 13 percent of full-time students received a grant worth at least half of tuition, and in 2019, that number had more than doubled to 29 percent. Similarly, in 2011 52 percent of full-time students received a grant (worth any amount) and by 2019 over three-quarters (78 percent) received grant money.

Value

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlooks projects growth in legal employment between 2019 and 2029. Among positions requiring a graduate or professional degree, lawyers are projected to have the third largest increase in openings (32,300).

Access the full report here.

U.S. News Announces Updates to the Law School Rankings in an Open Letter to Law Deans

AccessLex Institute Publishes Findings on Access, Affordability, and Value of Law School

Your story set apart.