In a recently released issue, the U.S. News & World Report altered its standards for law school rankings. While the change is slight, some officials are concerned the new rankings produced by the system could indirectly disadvantage minority applicants to law schools.
The U.S. News and World Report changed its ranking method to use the median LSAT score between the 25th and 75th percentile instead of the average between the two.
The previous ranking method allowed schools to maintain their rank even if they admitted a larger group of students with lower scores. According to the Law School Admissions Council, lower-scoring students are usually minority students, said Virginia Keehan, assistant dean of admissions at Southern Methodist University.
"If you have more emphasis placed on LSAT scores, that will put minority students at a disadvantage," Keehan said.
The University Law School's diversity policy is not limited to race -- it also encompasses other criteria such as disability and preference for Virginia residents. It is unlikely that the new ranking method will change admissions or affirmative action policies, Law Prof. George Rutherglen said.
"That's a pretty subtle change," Rutherglen said. "Almost all the difficult cases that come up in law school admissions involve such a small percentage of students that it wouldn't affect the 25 or 75 percent cut-offs, but I don't know for certain."
Law School officials have yet to review what affects the recent change to U.S. News and World Report's rankings might have had to their applicant pool, but the University's Law School remains stable in its national rank, said Bill Burgen, the Law School's assistant dean for administrative services.
"U.Va. Law has been hovering between sixth and 11th for the last 20 years," he said. "There's not a lot of difference in terms of numerical indicators."
This year, the Law School was ranked eighth in the Nation by U.S. News and World Report.
Although the University Law School anticipates no major change, Southern Methodist University dropped in the U.S. News and World Report law school rankings from 47 to 52.
"Some of the change can be attributed" to the change in the ranking method, Keehan said. "The way the scores were calculated under the old method would have been beneficial to us."
Despite the significant drop, SMU's admissions policies will not be affected by the change. SMU will continue to focus on diversity rather than rankings, Keehan said.
Students and schools are affected by the U.S. News & World Reports rankings, according to Burgen.
"In a general sense, U.S. News and World Report rankings affect prospective students' choices about what schools to apply to," Burgen said. "The exact same thing happens with undergraduate rankings."
University undergraduate and graduate programs are influenced by the attention given to rankings such as those published by U.S. News and World Report.
"You're always trying to protect your position and perhaps enhance it," Burgen said.
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