Thursday, March 13, 2008

Bravo to Brian Leiter for his suggestion about blogging on the upcoming USNWR rankings!

Brian has posted a very sensible suggestion (here) about blogging about the upcoming USNWR rankings, which come out in a couple of weeks. As he suggests, blogging about the overall rankings is mostly a "garbage in, garbage out" exercise: the overall rankings have too many problems that specific postings on them is like shooting fish in a barrel. Posts on the components of the overall rankings (or about other observations regarding the rankings) may well be more useful.

Thanks, Brian!

And some thoughts before the rankings come out: as always, the improvements made by many schools won't be recognized by the rankings, because most schools are improving, but the rankings are relative; aside from the truly exceptional law schools, the little (and I mean tiny!)differences in some components are going to cause some truly out-of-whack results for some schools; the whole idea that a school is "one better" than the school immediately below it is preposterous, just as the idea in This Is Spinal Tap that the amp was "one louder" because it "went to eleven" was laughable; and my sympathies go out to the various law deans across the country who are stocking up on antacids right now.

No comments: