The US News rankings will be released tomorrow, and Michigan will be ranked 11th. The rankings chart will show that Michigan improved its overall score from last year, and maintained or improved its position in all but two of the listed subcategories (not all of the components are listed in the chart) — but we will be a point behind three schools that tied at 8.
Three components in the chart stand out: Employment numbers, assessment scores, and student/faculty ratio. Since the time the employment numbers were calculated (for the class of 2013), we have reorganized the Office of Career Planning, devoted significantly more human and financial resources to the office, and have made stronger links between students and our extraordinary alumni network. Michigan students get jobs.
Our assessment scores (surveys of professors, lawyers, and judges) are unchanged since last year, and if the rankings were based solely on these categories (as they once were), Michigan’s rank would of course be higher.
Our student/faculty ratio is slightly higher than last year (that’s bad) because of a change in required reporting timing that happened to work against us. It’s possible — but we do not know for sure — that absent this change, Michigan would have been tied for 8. Schools are separated by tiny amounts, so small changes in the components of the algorithm often result in rankings changes.
I talked with a few of you in the Commons this afternoon; reactions ranged from “that sucks” to “that makes absolutely no sense.” As Michigan students, you already know what an extraordinary place this is. But I’m writing anyway to let you know, no matter how you (or I) feel about this particular metric, that the faculty and administration get it: We understand that to many people, the smallest possible change in ordinal rank has meaning. I also want to assure you that we are fully committed to being, and will continue to be, one of the world’s great institutions of legal education, a place at which we value not only the serious analytical rigor with which we train the world’s finest lawyers, but also community, collegiality, and tradition.
And speaking of those things: I look forward to seeing you all at the SFF Auction next week.