Legal Commentary

In its published version of its law school rankings, US News lists schools in the "third tier" and "fourth tier" alphabetically, rather than in ranked order.  One of my colleagues has noticed an anomaly in this year's on-line version of rankings which, it appears, reveals the full ordinal ranking of third-tier schools in "batches" which correspond to "tied" scores.

When viewing the "third tier" electronically on the US News web site, schools are not listed alphabetically.  In the third tier, for example, the first listed school is Creighton University (Creighton is not the first alphabetically).  Schools then appear in alphabetized groups which, it seems, reveal the full rankings:  wherever there is a tie in the top-100, US News has listed schools alphabetically. It appears that the web site does the same.

For the ordinal listing of 3rd and 4th Tier Schools, read on...

A few caveats.  It is possible that, in a few instances, a school that is is "bunched" alone following a group of schools that precede the school alphabetically.  In that case, schools might falsely appear to be tied.  Second, I post this not because I endorse the US News rankings, or its methodology. I am conscious of some of the dangers of ranking more law schools (see Tom Bell's post on this here).  But this information appears to now be in the public domain, and I'm curious (see below) why and what it means. 

Second Tier

* * *

99.      Hofstra

100. (Tie) Mercer, Stetson, Syracuse, U. Buffalo, U.Louisville

Third Tier

105. (Tie) Creighton, U. Arkansas (Fayetteville), U. Maine

108. (Tie) Michigan State University, Quinnipiac U., U. Mississippi, U. Toledo

112. (Tie) Albany, U. Akron, U.  Montana, U. San Francisco, U. St. Thomas (MN), Vermont

118. (Tie) Drake, Gonzaga, Howard, New York Law School, U. Idaho, U. Missouri-Kansas City, W. Virginia

124. (Tie) Cleveland State, Loyola - New Orleans, Texas Tech., U. Baltimore, U. Wyoming, Wayne State U.

130. (Tie) Chapman, Franklin Pierce, Hamline, Pace, U. Arkansas-Little Rock, Washburn

136.  (Tie) Ohio Northern, Samford (Cumberland), Suffolk, U. South Dakota, Willamette

Fourth Tier

141. U. North Dakota

142. (Tie) Campbell, So. Illinois, Southwestern, U. Memphis, U. Tulsa, Valparaiso

148. Northern Illinois

149. (Tie) CUNY,  William Mitchell

151. U. Dayton

152. (Tie) Duquesne, Florida International, John Marshall

155. (Tie) California Western, Northern Kentucky

157. (Tie) Nova Southeastern University, Roger Williams U., Widener

160. (Tie) Capital, Whittier

162. (Tie) Mississippi College, South Texas, St. Mary's, Texas Wesleyan, U. Detroit

167. (Tie) N.C. Central, Oklahoma City U., Texas Southern

170. (Tie) Florida Coastal, Regent, Western New England

173. (Tie) Golden Gate, New England, Southern, St. Thomas (FL), Thomas Jefferson

178. (Tie) Ave Maria, Touro

180. (Tie) Barry, Thomas Cooley, U. District of Columbia

183. Appalachian

Now some questions.  First, was this intentional?  Some critics have suggested US News should rank all law schools to avoid the punitive effect of slipping from Tier 2 to Tier 3 (something my employer did this year).  A drop from spot 104 in the rankings to 105 pushes one out of the ranked list and into (at least in the published version) alphabetical-land (Sorry, Creighton!).  Was US News trying to answer these critics without broadcasting that it was doing so?  My guess is that leaks prompted US News to rush the web site on-line, and that they missed this quirk, but who knows?

Second, how long will it take before US News changes its web page?