Rankings

04 Mar 2024

Podcast: Why Rankings Matter to People (& Why They Should Not)

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike discusses some of the psychological and societal reasons that rankings seem to matter so much to people—then explains the reasons that they shouldn't matter as much as they do.

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12 Feb 2024

Podcast: Law School Admissions Now vs. 10 Years Ago

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna has a conversation with Joe Pollak, one of Spivey's consultants and a former admissions officer at the University of Michigan Law School, about differences and similarities in law school admissions today vs. ten years ago.

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15 Dec 2023

Predicted 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings

With today’s release of the new ABA-required 509 disclosures, we now have all law schools’ fall 2023 medians and class sizes, plus we have the ability to more accurately predict next year’s upcoming U.S. News law school rankings.

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13 Nov 2023

How does U.S. News *actually* rank law schools?

The U.S. News & World Report law school rankings methodology may appear simple at first glance, but it is also widely (and deeply) misunderstood. Here, we analyze the methodology + this year's changes.

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18 Sep 2023

U.S. News Best College Rankings (+/- 2024 vs. 2023)

The 2024 (published 2023) U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Rankings were released today—here are the top 50 national universities with plus/minuses.

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26 Jun 2023

Podcast: Dean Z on Underrated/Overrated Law School Admissions Advice + Answering Reddit Questions (Part 1)

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike has a conversation with Dean Sarah Zearfoss (also known as "Dean Z").

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23 May 2023

Podcast: The New Rankings & The Future of Law School Admissions/Legal Education

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike talks about the new 2023-2024 U.S. News law school rankings (full +/- list here), the changes in methodology that they made, and whether and how this year's rankings events will impact law school admissions and legal education moving forward.

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11 May 2023

U.S. News Puts Blame On Schools & Decides Transparency is Overrated

Apparently U.S. News has decided to pretend that its botched rankings rollout never happened. That transparency is overrated, or at least, that it only applies to law schools, not to U.S. News. And that law schools are to blame for the rankings fiasco this year. Let's recap. On April 11th U.S. News posted a "preview" of the new law school rankings, including a list of the top 14 schools; it said the full list would be available April 18. This was likely an attempt to (1) preempt possible leaks,

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11 May 2023

2023-24 U.S. News Law School Rankings: This Year vs. Last Year (+/-)

After a long, winding, grueling path to get here, we finally have the 2023-2024 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. Here are the new rankings with +/-.

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08 May 2023

U.S. News Rankings & the First Amendment: Bad Legal Takes and Shooting Themselves in the Foot

U.S. News' CEO Eric Gertler was part of a panel at Lafayette College on May 2nd. This blog focuses on what Mr. Gertler said about the U.S. News rankings—specifically, their relationship to the First Amendment and freedom of speech.

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