Friday, June 18, 2004
Check out the fundraising appeal I received today from Boston University (where I got my LL.M. while practicing in Boston):
Boston University School of Law will close its fiscal year on June 30, 2004. It’s not too late to show your support for the School by making a donation to the Annual Fund. Last year our donations helped to elevate the school from number 28 to number 23 in the U.S. News and World Report rankings. In order to continue this upward trend we need to continue the generosity that we have displayed in the past. If you have not already done so, please make a donation to the Annual Fund before the end of the fiscal year. To give on-line visit the School’s Website at http://www.bu.edu/law/giving. On-line giving is secure, convenient. Your donation will make a significant impact on the success of Boston University School of Law.
7 responses to “Impact of US News Rankings”
Hmmm. With enough money perhaps Villanova can buy its way into #1?
This is a great idea! I intend to bring up a similar proposal at our SBA meeting in September!
This is sad that somehow there is a nexus b/t ranking and the amount of money required to obtain the results. The entire ranking process needs to be revisited. Last I looked all law students read the same cases and take a bar exam. There are excellent attorneys that come out of all different lawschools regardless of what the rankings are. Maybe the people at USNEWS need to read Justice Thoms Brennans book on judging the law schools.
This is sad that somehow there is a nexus b/t rankings and the amount of money required to obtain the results. The entire ranking process needs to be revisited. Last I looked all law students read the same cases and take a bar exam. There are excellent attorneys that come out of all different lawschools regardless of what the rankings are. Maybe the people at USNEWS need to read Justice Thomas Brennans book on judging the law schools.
I got the same announcement, too, because I am an BU LL.M. alum, I do not think that it is inherently bad to ask for money to raise a USN ranking. The USN ranking is an indicator of what people think of the school and, as such, has been justly criticized as being flawed. Nevertheless, everyone seems to care about it.
If, say, I were to make a donation of $500,000 (which I do not have), the money would likely go to a good use. BU needs a new building, and like all schools, it could do with a few more endowed professorships in certain subjects. Half a million dollars would do quite a bit to get there. Now, if BU was could recruit, say, ten more big-name professors (especially in Tax) to divide their time between LL.M. courses and J.D. courses, its ranking WOULD go up! Indeed, if BU were to send more people (such as yourself) to academe its ranking would go up – probably by about 5-10 points.
BU right now is suffering from a departed dean. The faculty is more spooked than a bunch of cattle at a cattle-spooking festival. Everyone feels cheated that a new building won’t be built for the next five to ten years. Indeed of the alums that I have spoken to, people are sure that the department of the dean will make the ranking go down! (BUSL was not helped in any way by Silber and his constant obnoxiousness.) So, maybe, just maybe if BU’s grads, could give a bit, the department or an utterly incompetent dean could be rectified.
What does the other poster mean by “rethink” the rankings”? Why do they need to be rethunk? People seem to think they are an indicator of whatever they want to be indicated. There are other ways of ranking schools (such as Professor Leiter’s rankings). However, USN, with its overly-subjective and self-perpetuating rankings is loved by all but people who went to schools that are not positively ranked.
But, lets say the “ranking” were reconsidered. Maybe we could rank schools on the basis of faculty publication. This wouldn’t account for the quality of the publication, and many argue that law school has little to do with the faculty’s work, anyway. Detractors also point out that there would be an incentive to increase class-size in favor of prolific professors publishing more.
Student surveys of “quality of teaching” are even more inaccurate than surveys of lots of other people.
Likewise, discounting the money that students make after they graduate is not fair to the students. Like it or not, some people want to go to law school to make money. Sure, it is great to do pro bono (and I do my share), but you can’t pro bono well unless you have the money from paying clients.
So what do you propose? Rank law schools on how they feel about themselves? (Heck, why don’t we let criminal defendants decide whether they are guilty or not.) Somehow get US News not to tell students that the school that sent them the T-shirt and bumpersticker will not help them get a job that will even come close to paying off their student loans?
Maybe instead of bashing USN, we should think of ways to make it more consistent, and point out areas where schools are fudging their numbers.
My ties to BU Law School’s Graduate Tax Program go back to 1967. Over the years, including a stint on its adjunct faculty, I have noted that several deans had proposed a new facility for the Law School, including far off campus. In fact, one of them, I forget his name, resigned after a couple of years as Dean and went on to become the Dean of Univ. of PA Law School because of his frustration with the BU administration (John Silber). The Law School building was initially shared with the School of Education. It is a very inefficient building, with two banks of elevators that students learn to manipulate in their efforts to get to the next class on time. In addition, it is one ugly building. But, the Law School has a really good faculty and the student body is excellent. The proposed location for the new building is at the easterly side of the BU Bridge. The intersection of the Bridge with Commonwealth Avenue is presently close to capacity. Perhaps this may not be the right location for the new building.
At the rate BU is raising money, in 10 years it’ll catch up with BC, NESL, and Suffolk! and it will never come close to Harvard.