The Latest: The 2023-24 rankings are out.
US News & World Report finally released its annual rankings of the top law and medical schools on Thursday, after boycotts of the institutions, disputes over methodology, and weeks of delays.
A few law schools have shuffled positions, but those at the top of the new list are familiar – Stanford, Yale, Chicago, Duke, Harvard and New York University.
Yale, which was the first to boycott, retained its No. 1 position, despite a tie this year with Stanford. Columbia, which also joined the boycott, fell to eighth place from fourth.
There are some big shifts in the lower ranks, as a result of a new approach. North Carolina’s Wake Forest jumped 15 spots to tie for No. 22, from No. 37 last year. Texas Tech and Marquette University both increased by 34 points and tied for No. 71.
Among medical schools, most that were in the top 10 list for research last year 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.
New York University fell to No. 10 from No. 2 last year.
Background: Many high schools are boycotting US News.
After criticizing the US News rankings for years, several elite law and medical schools have decided to boycott the 2023-24 rankings by refusing to hand over the data, saying the rankings unreliable and inequitable, focusing on educational priorities.
Yale Law School said the US News methodology does not place enough emphasis on programs “that support careers in the public interest, champion need-based aid, and welcome students who work in the classroom in the profession.” As a result, Yale argues, the rankings effectively penalize law schools that emphasize that work, and discourage others from focusing on that work.
Faced with dozens of schools refusing to participate, US News went on a listening tour last year to come up with a new approach. For law schools, fully 58 percent of a school’s ranking is now based on results — how many graduating students passed the bar and got jobs — a big increase from previous years.
The new ranking of medical schools for research also uses a new methodology, and includes an evaluation of faculty resources, the academic achievements of entering students and research productivity.
US News said that for law and medical schools that declined to provide data, it filled in the blanks using publicly available information.
Despite the improvement, an early preview of the 2023-24 ranking, released on April 21, ran into another wave of criticism, prompting a delay in the release of the final list.
