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With help from
Netscape Web Tutorial
by Charlton D. Rose
and David Chang

Understanding the US News Rankings

Paying the Consequences

All too often, applicants to law school look at the composite USNews ranking and nothing else.  All they can ask is "What tier is it?"

Misuse of the USNews rankings has caused two major, and closely related problems.  The first is a decrease in minority admissions; the second is a decrease in taking risks on mainstream applicants with interesting backgrounds and accomplishments, but lower LSAT scores.  Both of these problems stem from the same cause:

The primary factor in USNews ranking is the LSAT score.  

It's the only variable that correlates strongly with rank.  (I told you about that over here.)  The rest is definitional:  if a top law school is one that takes only high LSAT scores, people with low LSAT scores will not be admitted.  If you want to have a chance at a top school, stop defining "top" as a USNews ranking.  Look at the quality of the programs that interest you, the success of the graduates, the appropriateness of the locale, anything besides the USNews number.  

Once you start doing that, the law schools can start looking at people like you again.