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Antitrust and Law Schools’ exit from US News rankings

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Rankings pervade the world. People rely on them to make decisions about nearly everything—from which running shoes to buy, to which college to trust for education and flourishing. But when it comes to the U.S. News law school rankings, it may not be wise to trust them. As extensive research shows, the U.S. News rankings mislead students rather than usefully inform them. Moreover, by fueling a prestige battle among schools, the U.S. News rankings incentivize universities to harm diversity—an essential facet of educational quality. Expressing some of these concerns, Yale Law School, Harvard, Georgetown, Columbia, Berkeley, Stanford, and NYU recently withdrew from the U.S. News rankings. Do these universities risk violating antitrust laws by pulling out from the U.S. News rankings? This underexplored question lies at the heart of this essay.

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