This is my second time blogging through the U.S. News rankings cycle, and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.
First, the rankings are leaked. Then, everybody over-analyzes the rankings, looking for patterns and whatnot. After that, we discuss law school deans' reactions and overreactions to the rankings. Finally, we forget about the rankings themselves, but spend the rest of the year talking about all the new methods law schools have come up with to game the system.
Right now we're in the second stage. So, I bring to your attention, TaxProf Blog's list of the biggest movers this year. Starting with the standouts from the first tier:
-Indiana-Bloomington #23 (+13) (Biggest move: From "Who?" to "Oh, I've heard of them.")
-UC-Davis #35 (+9) (Now only three spots down from when I got here!)
-North Carolina #30 (+8)
-Utah #45 (+6)
-Cardozo #49 (+6)
-BYU #41 (+5)
-Washington & Lee #30 (-5) (Guess U.S. News doesn't value practical experience either?)
-Arizona #43 (-5)
-George Washington #28 (-8) (Where did that come from?)
-Colorado #45 (-13)
And my selections from the second tier list:
-San Diego #61 (+21) (Daaamn!)
-San Francisco #98 (+14)
-Loyola-L.A. #71 (-8)
-Florida #51 (-5) (Fell just out of the top tier...That's got to hurt.)
-Santa Clara #85 (-8)
-Indiana-Indianapolis #87 (-19) (What the hell is going on in Indiana?)
Pretty exciting. Stay tuned to see the rest of the U.S. News hoopla play out - we'll have analysis tomorrow, when the rankings officially hit newsstands. A full list of all of the U.S. News moves this year, according to leaked copies of the rankings (which have nonetheless been blessed by WSJ's Law Blog), can be found here.
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