Two of the most prestigious law schools in the United States, Yale and Harvard, have announced that they will no longer participate in the U.S. News & World Report university rankings.

Two schools made the decision because they believe that the rankings are not a good measure of the quality of a law school. In a letter to U.S. News, Yale Law School dean Robert Post said that "the [ranking] system is so deeply flawed as to be virtually useless." Harvard Law School dean Martha Minow also criticized the rankings, saying that they "encourage unhealthy competition and focus on quantifiable measures rather than educational quality."

Reuters reported that Yale Law School has captured the Number 1 spot every year since 1990, when the U.S. News began ranking law schools. Still, both universities have decided to remove themselves from the list as they find this whole ranking system a scoop.

Yale Law School Dean Heather K. Gerken and newly appointed Deputy Dean James W. Manning recently spoke out against the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, saying that they are flawed in their measurement of debt metric. And in return it incentivizes schools to take more students who do not need financial aid and harms others. And considering test scores and college grades in the ranking system have incentivized law schools to give scholarships merit base rather than on a need basis.

Columbia University recently fell from No. 2 to No. 18 in the US News rankings, after it was revealed that some of the data related to the number of undergrad students and faculty details with regard to their highest degrees were reported inaccurate. These scandals have increased doubts about the ranking system. Any which way critics have long argued that U.S. News & World Report puts too much emphasis on standardized test scores in their rankings of colleges and universities. Critics also say they have encouraged unqualified students to apply in order to showcase selectivity. Above all, a recent mistake by the magazine has only served to bolster these criticisms.

For US admissions the students should rely on their own research focussing on universities' official sites. These steps from IVY League universities might not be a big step towards improving the ranking process as only law schools have taken this step. But US News is not only a ranking website but also provides a lot of information publicly. We always suggest students take rankings more subjectively instead of in an absolute manner.

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Further Reading:

Yale University: Safe or Unsafe?

Harvard University