Hunger strike against US law school rankings

Unemployed law school graduate Ethan Haines launched a hunger strike on 5 August to protest against the US News & World Report’s law school rankings. Haines says that the rankings are inaccurate, have undue influence on college selections and law firm hires, and lead to increases in the cost of legal education. Haines is not alone in his protest against the annual rankings lists. Many parents, students and educators claim that the rankings are misleading and unhelpful. The Education Conservancy is a nonprofit launched in 2005 to help applicants “overcome commercial interference in college admissions. In 2007, the Conservancy drafted a letter, signed by 65 college presidents, rebuking the US News & World Report rankings as a tool of “false precision” that overemphasizes “prestige” and encourages “wasteful spending.”

Hunger strike against US law school rankings msnbc.msn.com msnbc.msn.com Tue, Aug 17, 2010