US News publishes the latest, contested rankings of law and medical schools
The latest: the 2023-24 rankings are out.
US News & World Report has finally released its annual top rankings law And medical schools on Thursday after boycotts by those institutions, disputes over methodology and a delay of weeks.
A few law schools switched positions, but the ones that topped the new list were well known: Stanford, Yale, Chicago, Duke, Harvard, and New York University.
Yale, which boycotted first, kept its No. 1 ranking, though tied with Stanford this year. Columbia, which also participated in the boycott, dropped from fourth to eighth.
Among the lower ranks there were some major shifts due to a new methodology. North Carolina’s Wake Forest moved up 15 spots to finish at No. 22, from No. 37 last year. Texas Tech and Marquette University are both up 34 points and are tied for 71st.
Of the medical schools, most that were in the top 10 in research last year will remain there in 2023-24.
The top three medical schools are Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Pennsylvania. Joining the top ten: Vanderbilt, Weill Cornell and Washington University in St. Louis.
New York University dropped to number 10 from number 2 last year.
Background: Many top schools have boycotted US News.
After years of criticizing U.S. News rankings, many elite legal and medical schools decided to boycott the 2023-24 rankings by refusing to hand over data, saying the rankings were unreliable and unfair, affecting education priorities were skewed.
Yale Law School said the U.S. News methodology doesn’t give enough weight to programs “that support careers in the public interest, advocate for needs-based aid, and welcome working-class students to the profession.” As a result, Yale argued, the rankings effectively penalized law schools that emphasize that work, and dissuaded others from focusing on that work.
Faced with several dozen schools refusing to participate, US News went on a listening tour last year to develop a new methodology. For law schools, 58 percent of a school’s rankings are now based on results — how many graduating students pass the bar and get a job — a significant increase from previous years.
The new ranking of medical schools for research also used a new methodology and included an evaluation of faculty resources, the academic performance of incoming students, and research productivity.
US News said that for the law and medical schools that declined to provide data, it filled in the blanks using publicly available information.
Despite the revision, an early preview of the 2023-24 rankings, released on April 21, was met with another wave of criticism, leading to delays in publishing the final list.