The current methodology tends to increase the costs of legal education for students. As a recent study by the United States Government Accountability Office has suggested, the U.S. News methodology arguably punishes a school that provides a high quality education at an affordable cost. Because low-cost law schools report a lower expenditure per student than higher cost schools, it is difficult for low tuition schools to top the rankings. A school that works hard to hold down costs may indeed find itself falling in the rankings relative to a peer that increases tuition above the rate of inflation each year.
U.S. News responded to the criticism by pointing out that rising costs can be blamed on the still-rising demand for legal education: “Concerning law school tuition costs, . . . there's basic economics of demand being greater than supply, which is one key reason why law schools can keep raising their tuition.” U.S. News adds: “[I]t's very easy for the ABA and law school academics to blame U.S. News for many of the negative practices at law schools. Law schools and the ABA need to take far more direct responsibility for these trends.”
Whoever is to blame – and there would seem to be enough for everyone to share – it’s probably beyond controversy that law school in the U.S. is excessively expensive. Many law students who graduate and face the difficult legal job market are tens of thousands of dollars in debt. While I would be the last person to say that you should choose a law school based on cost alone, we have to acknowledge that the cost of law school is an important factor to weigh when evaluating your options. On this point, you would be very hard pressed to top Oak Brook College of Law (see this previous post).
