Jim Maule on the survey used by U.S. News to compile its tax rankings:

Here’s one of my peeves with the survey, aside from the general futility of trying to rank tax law programs the way people try to rank major league pitchers, college football teams, or "beautiful people" for other magazines. The survey includes every law school in the country. It does not limit the choices to law schools with tax programs. Why does that matter? It matters because many law schools do not have tax programs. They simply offer one, two, or perhaps three or four, tax courses to their J.D. students. In a few instances the courses are taught by adjunct faculty rather than members of the full-time faculty. Yet because the school’s name is famous, the school ends up getting votes for a program that does not exist. The appearance of a few tax courses in a J.D. curriculum does not make a tax program.

What I have been doing is eliminating from contention any law school without an LL.M. (Taxation) Program. Then I select 6, rather than the requested 15, schools. Why 6? Because there are 6 that I consider to be top-notch, though admittedly with some differences among them. The U.S. News survey does not ask me to rank my choices. That, too, is a deficiency in its survey process, and contributes to my decision to limit my selections.