George Washington Dean Lawrence Responds to the US News Nonsense

Here.  It's a very sensible response.  The big unanswered question is how the US News decision to include the numerical credentials of part-time students will affect part-time programs.  Everyone knows, of course, that the US News tail often wags the legal education dog.  The part-time programs undoubtedly provide a useful service for more mature, non-traditional students who want to get a legal education.  They are also important sources of revenue for many schools.  At the same time, law schools have pretty consistently taken steps to alter their programs to improve their US News standing.  One can understand why, when the nonsense number (the overall rank) is treated as newsworthy by other lazy journalists who don't bother to do any actual reporting or investigation, but just regurgitate the nonsense.  So what will happen to part-time programs over the next year?  I would not be surprised to see a major contraction in these programs.