U.S. News may go under

[LawDog3]

Like several media outlets, U.S. News Magazine is struggling financially, and there are rumblings that it may not survive the current economic crisis. If U.S. News was no longer a player in the rankings game, what effect(s) would it have on the way schools operate? Would the effects be positive or negative? Which ranking(s) would be the "go-to" source? 

[Dilettante]

Nothing will change. If U.S. News stops publishing weekly, they'll still publish and print that one issue of the year, which is hugely profitable for them. Who the hell reads that mag anyway? It's like third behind Time and Newsweek, and I don't know anyone who reads those magazines either. Too bad, it would be awesome if all of the sudden people had to decide for themselves what the best schools were for them.

[LawDog3]

What if a really reputable newspaper, like the NYT, started ranking magazines...listing USNWR a 4th tier magazine? lol!

[EarlCat]

If the USNews rankings went away, we'd just have to rely on another ranking system.

[LawDog3]

If the USNews rankings went away, we'd just have to rely on another ranking system.

Yeah man...Cooley man! Let's rock!

[Netopalis]

Were the US news rankings to go under, we would clearly adopt the old bastion of legal scholarship, the EMMM Rankings.  The EMMM rankings (Which, of course, stands for Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe, the creators of the system), have long been shown to be as accurate as any other ranking system and, in some ways, perhaps even moreso.  By doing away with the entire LSAT/GPA/Hair color system used by publishers like US News, they individually tailor each of their rankings to each individual student, completely taking out any factors of background, achievement or geographical location.  Imagine - a wholly unbiased ranking system!  It truly is blind to the attempts of alumni to bolster their own school's ranking as well - another major problem with US News.  All in all, it is rather shocking to me that the EMMM system has not been adopted elsewhere - clearly, it has major positive points that should be considered.

[iamluke20]

If the USNews rankings went away, we'd just have to rely on another ranking system.

I finally took the time to go to the Cooley Website and read some of the factors they used to justify why they are better than schools like Stanford, Penn, (insert school). 

All I can say is WOW!  If you need a good laugh, I suggest reading the "intro to the 10th edition". I think they use the term elitism about 50 times.

[LawDog3]

If the USNews rankings went away, we'd just have to rely on another ranking system.

I finally took the time to go to the Cooley Website and read some of the factors they used to justify why they are better than schools like Stanford, Penn, (insert school). 

All I can say is WOW!  If you need a good laugh, I suggest reading the "intro to the 10th edition". I think they use the term elitism about 50 times.

Yeah...that is funny. I mean, I do not believe grades and LSAT totally measure "student quality", but at some point, that argument has limits. And student quality does factor into the law school experience. Cooley is just slightly better than a "matchbook school".

But some of the rankings are believable. But Cornell? Chicago? WTF?! And GWU and Fordham are very good schools, but I don't know if they're THAT good.

[iamluke20]

If the USNews rankings went away, we'd just have to rely on another ranking system.

I finally took the time to go to the Cooley Website and read some of the factors they used to justify why they are better than schools like Stanford, Penn, (insert school). 

All I can say is WOW!  If you need a good laugh, I suggest reading the "intro to the 10th edition". I think they use the term elitism about 50 times.

Yeah...that is funny. I mean, I do not believe grades and LSAT totally measure "student quality", but at some point, that argument has limits. And student quality does factor into the law school experience. Cooley is just slightly better than a "matchbook school".

But some of the rankings are believable. But Cornell? Chicago? WTF?! And GWU and Fordham are very good schools, but I don't know if they're THAT good.

I don't know if you noticed who the author's of the rankings were, the current president of Cooley, and the former president of Cooley. 

I could probably tailor a rankings methodology that could show that any school is in the top 25.  Like Mark Twain said, "there are three types of lies; lies, damned lies, and statistics."

How can they possibly even beleive the words coming out of their mouths?

[LawDog3]

Judge Brennan does the Cooley Rankings. That rich fat-cat started that school and does his own rankings.

Vault, Princeton, Lawdragon, Lieter...those are worthy rankings...

Why do the NYT, Wall Street Journal or Business Week not do rankings?  That's the bigger question. We need some other publications to create competition. It will level the playing field and spread the high GPA's and LSAT's out to other schools.

I bet if USNWR didn't exist all of those tier-2's people keep saying are underrated would get more of the top talent.