Visualizing the 2023 U.S. News law school rankings--the way they should be presented

Five years ago, I pointed out that the ordinal ranking at the heart of the USNWR rankings is perhaps one of its greatest deceptions. It crunches its formula and spits out a score. That score is normalized to give the top-scoring school (Yale) a score of 100, and it scales the rest of the scores off that.

But the magazine then chooses to display rank order of each school--even if there are significant gaps between the scores. To highlight one such example this year, Vanderbilt has a score of 80, USC has a score of 79, and Florida has a score of 73, which suggest that Vanderbilt and USC are quite close and that Florida is somewhat farther behind those two (even if in overall elite company!). But the magazine displays this as Vanderbilt tied for 17, USC 20, and Florida 21--distorting the narrow gap between Vanderbilt and USC, and the much wider gap between them and Florida. And even though the magazine displays the overall score, the ordinal ranking drowns out these scores. Indeed, as the rankings are ordinal, there is no space from one school to the next, suggesting that they are placed along an equal line.

This plays out elsewhere in the rankings, as law students agonize over small differences in ordinal ranking that belie fairly distinct clumpings of schools that suggest little difference--indeed, in many cases, differences likely only the result of rounding the raw score up or down to the next whole number.

Assuming one takes the USNWR formula seriously--which it doesn't even appear USNWR does, given its choice to rank--a better way would be to visualize the relative performance of each school based on the score, not assigning each school an ordinal rank. That provides better context about the relative position of schools to one another. And that can help illustrate sharp differences in the overall score, or groupings that illustrate a high degree of similarity between a number of schools.

Below is my attempt to visualize the rankings in that fashion. (Please note that this may look best on a desktop browser due to the size of the chart.)

Score	USNWR 2023 Rankings, Visualized by Overall Score
100	Yale
99
98	Stanford
97
96	Chicago
95	Columbia | Harvard
94
93	Penn
92	NYU
91	Virginia
90
89	Berkeley
88	Michigan
87	Duke
86	Cornell
85	Northwestern
84	Georgetown
83	UCLA
82	Washington Univ.
81
80	Boston Univ. | Texas | Vanderbilt
79	USC
78
77
76
75
74
73	Florida | Minnesota
72	BYU | North Carolina
71	George Washington | Alabama | Notre Dame
70	Iowa
69	Georgia
68	Arizona State | Emory | George Mason | Ohio State | William & Mary
67	Illinois | Washington & Lee
66	Fordham | Davis | Irvine | Utah | Wake Forest
65
64	Indiana | Wisconsin
63	Arizona
62	Texas A&M
61	Florida State | Maryland
60	Colorado | Washington
59	Hastings
58	Pepperdine | Richmond | Cardozo
57	Tulane
56	Tennessee | Villanova
55	Baylor | Penn State Dickinson | SMU | Houston | Wayn State
54	Temple
53	Penn State University Park | Connecticut | San Diego
52	Loyola (CA) | Kansas | Kentucky | Missouri | UNLV | Oregon
51	American | Loyola Chicago | Northeastern | Seton Hall | Miami
50	Case Western | Drexel | Georgia State | Denver | Nebraska | Pitt
49	St. John's | South Carolina
48	Rutgers | Arkansas
47
46	Lewis & Clark | Cincinnati | Oklahoma
45	Michigan State | Hawaii | New Mexico
44	Chicago-Kent | Catholic | Buffalo | Louisville
43	Brooklyn | Florida International | Howard | Indianapolis | St. Louis
42	Syracuse | Montana
41	DePaul | Louisiana State | Marquette | Texas Tech | New Hampshire | Washburn
40	Drake | Stetson | Mississippi
39	Maine | Missouri-Kansas City
38	Gonzaga | Seattle
37	Chapman | Hofstra | Tulsa | West Virginia
36	Albana | Mercer | Suffolk | Baltimore | Dayton
35	Cleveland State | St. Thomas (MN)
34	Duquesne | NYLS | Wyoming | Willamette
33	Belmont | CUNY | Loyola New Orleans | Santa Clara | South Dakota | McGeorge
32
31	Creighton | Samford | Detroit Mercy
30	Pace | Regent | Idaho | Memphis | Vermont