Perceived Prestige: What Law Schools Dropping Out of the Rankings Means
By Sydney Montgomery, Esq. | Founder & Law School Admissions Consultant
The law school community has felt like it was imploding this week as some top-ranked schools decided to pull out of the US & World News rankings. What does this mean for the future of law school admissions? Let’s talk about it.
Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, and Georgetown - thus far - have pulled out of the US & World News (USNWR) rankings. For those wondering what that is, the USNWR lists the best law schools in the country. When it comes to law schools, this is the list. When people say T14 law schools, it’s according to this list. When people say so-and-so moved from 20 to 7, this is the list.
If you have been keeping up with me, I always say to take the rankings with a grain of salt. They’re important because people think they’re important. In this blog post, I’m going to talk about perceived prestige, what it means for the rankings, and what this means for law school applicants.
Would you rather listen to this blog post? Listen to Harvard, Yale, & Others Pulling Out of the US News Rankings on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts!
Does the USNWR prestige mean anything?
Before diving into this discussion, it is important to first understand the perceived prestige of the USNWR rankings. These rankings are completely a construct of our own perception, which means that their importance is relative to the importance society puts on them.
Unlike college or other higher ed programs, the law school list of rankings is USNWR. Sure, there may be others that do rankings, but, as mentioned before, this is the one being referred to when people talk about T14 or schools “dropping in the ranks.” This establishes a sort of monopoly that USNWR has over the prestige of law schools.
The USNWR ranking is considered important because people think it’s important, but it is not in and of itself important. Like any ranking system, there is an algorithm behind it that USNWR uses to determine what makes a good law school; that doesn’t mean that they have the final say on what makes a good law school.
However, some employers do believe that there is prestige or that you went to a strong law school just because of the USNWR. This is where the perceived prestige really comes into play.
That’s why I, as a Black woman, would never tell someone to completely disregard the rankings. I went to Harvard Law School and Princeton University for my undergrad. When I walk into a room, people may ignore me, but once they hear where I went to law school, even the most prejudiced of white men will think, “oh, well she must be smart.” A T14 law school can open doors because of that “prestige.”
The bottom line is, these law school rankings are a societal construct - led by a business trying to make money, USNWR - that could lose its value at any moment. If applicants, schools, employers, or any stakeholders in the law space collectively decided to not care about the USNWR, then these rankings are nothing but an article on a news site.
Will schools be ranked next year?
The first myth going around right now that I want to tackle is the idea that schools will no longer be ranked. I could make the Sydney Montgomery Best List of Law Schools, even if the schools aren’t giving me information to use.
USNWR isn’t going to just remove Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, and Georgetown from their list. These schools are just refusing to give USNWR information on the survey that USNWR asks law schools to participate in. Much of the data USNWR needs, however, is still available publicly or available to purchase without those surveys.
Now, this may affect some of their scores, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to be on the list. Yale will likely still be in those top three spots next year.
Why are schools pulling out?
Berkeley said that “the rankings discourage institutions from admitting low-income students and from supporting students interested in public service.”
It isn’t quite this black-and-white, but here is a brief reasoning: Schools are penalized by having students with large amounts of debt; low-income students are likely to take out more debt to go to law school. One way to prevent students from taking on more debt is to award more merit or need-based financial aid. A far easier way for most law schools is just to admit more wealthy full-pay students who do not need to take out as much debt. This sets up a dangerous incentive system, especially when you couple this with the fact that the rankings incentivize schools to give out merit aid to those with higher LSAT scores. In essence, the rankings can have a great impact on the priorities schools place on where they spend their money and it influences schools to spend their money in a way that does not encourage increased access to lower-income applicants.
The rankings also prioritize the percentage of graduates going into high-paying jobs; public service doesn’t always lend to high pay. Dean Manning in his comments stated that the USNWR rankings “undermine the efforts of many law schools to support public interest careers for their graduates.” His comments further echo that over the past several years law school deans have brought concerns to USNWR about the rankings and their methodology and the way that it hurts their efforts to increase socioeconomic diversity in their law school classes but the rankings have not changed to align with the mission and values of these schools.
That means that law schools are disincentivized to increase access to legal education for marginalized and lower-income students – all because of the USNWR rankings. They are also disincentivized to help prepare students for public service – all because of the USNWR rankings.
Frankly, these are great reasons to drop out of the rankings. These are things that schools should be incentivized to do, and the rankings aren’t providing that pressure.
I’m applying to law school. What do I do?
Absolutely nothing has changed about the metrics that law schools are using to evaluate you. Your application is not affected by this.
In a lot of respects, the schools dropping out are already using very holistic practices in the admissions process. They already had the leeway to do what they wanted. These schools have not been only admitting people for a boost in the USNWR rankings. At every class in the T14, there are people who are super deserving with LSAT scores in the mid-150s. They care about you as a person, not just these numbers.
Where it could get interesting is seeing schools ranked lower than 40 deciding to pull out of the rankings. Not because the rankings mean something, but because it might signal that they are no longer going to make decisions beholden to this list. Oftentimes the ethos and goals of deans at these schools are to rise in the rankings, unlike at “prestigious” schools in the T14 which don’t need to change practices to add more prestige to their name.
If these schools decide to change their admissions processes by pulling out of the rankings, then there might be changes that affect you as an applicant. They may be more likely to admit someone below the medians because they are no longer beholden to an arbitrary list.
Now, on the applicant's end, it may mean that some students will start applying to a wider variety of schools. Some of y’all - I won’t name names - only form your school list based on where they are in the rankings. You have no idea if it’s a good fit for you, if it’s in a geographic area you like, or if they even have programs that you like – all you know is their rankings number. When we take out the rankings, applicants may start doing more research to find a school that they actually want to attend.
My Concluding Thoughts
I think that this is a cause for celebration, cheering, ice cream, and even parties.
For so long, this list has negatively impacted stress, anxiety, and policies that do not create a more equitable legal landscape. To see that list be dismantled and to reimagine a world where law schools can actually focus on their own priorities and values is a beautiful thing.
Only 2% of lawyers are Black women. Less than 3% of lawyers are members of the LGBTQ+ community. That’s not okay. We really need to start thinking about the vehicles and gatekeepers that are perpetuating the lack of movement in access and equity in law school admissions.
It feels a little bit like the French Revolution (with less gore and death). The people are taking back their power, and I appreciate that.
The team at S. Montgomery Admissions Consulting is here to support you through this law school application cycle! Whether it's through personalized one-on-one counseling, our Essay Editing Combo Plans, or just downloading our free Essential Guide to Applying to Law School, there is definitely something we can do for you to help make this process a little bit easier.
As always, feel free to reach out to us at hello@smontgomeryconsulting.com with any of your questions! You can also submit a question to be answered on our weekly Break Into Law School® Podcast, streaming wherever your favorite podcast service is.