Harvard, Stanford, Yale, UC Berkeley, Columbia, Georgetown all are withdrawing from the well-known US News Law School Rankings citing flawed methodology and discrimination. Can the Indian law schools show enough backbone to challenge NIRF and similar rankings? The way it looks like, in the race for rankings, the universities have already started to neglect what they were actually created for, i.e. education and helping the students learn. The sheer toxicity of the comments section of any LI post discussing any of the rankings is enough to indicate the complete subversion of the process and its objectives.

Didn't know this. Very good point. I can't picture Sudhir withdrawing, but I think NALSAR, NUJS, GNLU and NLIU should. Below are some news reports on this.

Kian/R, you shovel make this featured. Your readers have dick measuring contests on this every other day, but the rankings itself are flawed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/us/law-school-rankings-test-scores.html

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/berkeley-joins-harvard-yale-boycott-us-news-law-school-rankings-2022-11-17/

https://news.yahoo.com/berkeley-joins-harvard-yale-boycott-202439989.html

To me, there is clearly a woke liberal agenda at play here, linked to the upcoming SCOTUS affirmative action case. Here is the official reason for the withdrawal:

"Yale law dean Heather Gerken and Harvard Law dean John Manning said Wednesday that U.S. News' ranking methodology runs contrary to their schools' commitments to diversity and affordability by incentivizing schools to give financial aid to applicants with high LSAT scores and undergraduate grades rather than to those most in need."

https://news.yahoo.com/berkeley-joins-harvard-yale-boycott-202439989.html

Thus, to me, it seems the reason is that they want more African Americans to enter law school in pursuance of their liberal agenda, but their LSAT scores are lower than that of white/Asian applicants and this harms their US News rank. Note that universities which top the US News science ranking, such as as MIT and Caltech (which have ZERO affirmative action and look at merit only) have not pulled out. It's just a law school thing.

If and when SCOTUS strikes down affirmative action, these law schools will have to look at LSAT scores only. But by rejecting LSAT they are finding ways to circumvent the ruling.

Adding to my previous comment, as this report says:

"Both Harvard and Yale law schools have announced they are exiting ranking by the US News & World Report, which would reduce the elite colleges' reliance on merit-based LSAT scores for admissions."

https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1594349891102408706

So clearly a woke agenda to diminish meritocracy and factor in race, in anticipation of the SCOTUS ruling on affirmative action.

Educated people should stop using the word 'meritocracy' by now. So long as you are not made to give up your parental wealth and generational privilege and given the exactly same training, education, upbringing and opportunities from your childhood as every other child gets regardless of their background, what you display and consider as 'merit' is not inherent in you, but the fruit of privilege.

Another article:

"Ivy Leagues lower admissions standards in anticipation of Supreme Court eliminating affirmative action"

"As the Supreme Court considers removing affirmative action from the university admissions process, both Harvard and Yale law schools this week announced they were exiting ranking by the US News & World Report, which would reduce the elite colleges' reliance on merit-based LSAT scores for admissions.

According to the Wall Street Journal, "This sounds like cover for a desire by Yale to be free to admit students with lower test scores in service to diversity, but without taking a hit to its exclusive reputation."

Thus, this clearly shows wokeism is behind this decision and it ought to be condemned. The US News ranking is not perfect but at last tried to promote merit by emphasising LSAT scores. I'm also betting that "diversity" means blacks and Latinos but not Indians or Chinese 🙄 A complete scam which hurts Asian Americans!!

https://thepostmillennial.com/ivy-leagues-lower-admissions-standards-in-anticipation-of-supreme-court-eliminating-affirmative-action

Quote:

Yale Law Dean Gerken said, "Today, 20 percent of a law school's overall ranking is median LSAT/GRE scores and GPAs. While academic scores are an important tool, they don't always capture the full measure of an applicant. This heavily weighted metric imposes tremendous pressure on schools to overlook promising students, especially those who cannot afford expensive test preparation courses."

The Wall Street Journal called the LSAT a merit-based "equalizer," and wrote that "for the price of a prep book, a low- or middle-income applicant can use an excellent score to compete with thousands of affluent applicants with polished resumes or connections."

The forced-diversity issue is being litigated as the Supreme Court on October 31 heard oral arguments in two cases that challenge affirmative action in university admissions. The cases, brought forth by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), are against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, respectively, and were filed in federal court in 2014.

At issue in these cases was the definition of the word "diversity", whether or not said diversity is useful or preferable on campus, and whether or not it is discriminatory to use race as a determining factor in university admissions.

SFFA alleges that those who suffer most from Harvard's affirmative action admissions standards are Asian American students. Asian American students of equal qualification to white, black, or Hispanic students, SFFA argues, are less likely to be admitted.

https://thepostmillennial.com/ivy-leagues-lower-admissions-standards-in-anticipation-of-supreme-court-eliminating-affirmative-action

#YesToMerit #RankingsAreGood #GoWokeGoBroke

When you get the same training and education as those kids who deserve to be part of IDIA but can't make it there and still make it through competitive exams, then come and boast of your merit. Till then, you are whiny. As for your 'conspiracy theory', newsflash, if most of the prominent law schools in a country are taking a common decision, one need not prefer your version over theirs, because you lack locus.

This is bound to happen in India too with the likes of the Jindals of the world screaming their 'rankings' in every advertising platform whereas the actual market perception (students, academia, employers) is always that of bewilderment. This doesn't mean Jindal is a bad college. It is not. It has some great infrastructure and teachers. That does not make it a top law school as yet. They'll get there but it will take time.