Suffice it to say, there is a lot of stock put in the quality of schools based on U.S. News and World Report’s school rankings. But Harvard and Yale unranking themselves ultimately comes across as a case of sour grapes. A deeper dive into the ins and outs of the issue merit an alternative consideration for their faltering rankings.
Yale has had to navigate some serious scandals this past year. In March, some of its students disrupted a panel, drowning out the conservatives on the bipartisan panel discussing civil liberties by yelling. This imbroglio by the students, as well as academic concerns, has led many judges to swear off hiring any law clerks from Yale. According to The Washington Free Beacon, “Between September and October, 14 federal judges, including James Ho of the 5th Circuit and Elizabeth Branch of the 11th Circuit, said they would no longer hire clerks from Yale Law School, citing concerns about free speech and intellectual diversity.”