Date: Friday, March 28, 2003 10:50 AM
Someone called my attention to the "scorching critique" of the new data 
posted on the EQR site.  Since it seems to be based on a misreading of both 
this new data, and the prior studies, I should be grateful if you would 
print the following correction:
First, Supreme Court clerkship placement was never a factor in the EQR 
rankings, and the data on clerkship placement is still available on the EQR 
site, and will be updated.  All we have done is post new data based on a 
survey of leading legal scholars about faculty quality.
Second, AAAS membership was only treated as a factor back in 1997, but as 
many critics correctly pointed out the numbers (of AAAS members) are too 
small (and the selection process for the AAAS too incestuous) for this data 
to be meaningful.  I have never used it as a criterion since.
Third, only 25% of the U.S. News ranking of law schools is based on a 
survey of academics, a survey that is badly conducted, for reasons 
discussed at length on the EQR site.  To say that EQR is now "just the U.S. 
News rankings" reflects a complete misunderstanding of how U.S. News ranks 
schools.
Fourth, the EQR always employed reputational data, namely, the U.S. News 
data, which, at the time, was the best available.  This reputational data 
is *much* better, for the reasons discussed on the new site.  So this data 
that we collected is simply replacing the U.S. News reputationa data, which 
EQR used to employ.
Fifth, the only methodological change being made (as is clearly stated on 
the 2003-04 site) is to stop trying to aggregate components--faculty 
quality (by objective and subjective measures, student quality, etc.)--in 
to an overall ranking.  The site will present the data disaggregated, with 
rankings by a single criterion (e.g., faculty reputation, faculty 
productivity, Supreme Court clerkship placement, placement in law teaching 
jobs) in each section.  Students may then evaluate and weight this 
information as they deem appropriate.
Thank you.
========================
Brian Leiter
Joseph D. Jamail Centennial Chair in Law,
Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the
Law & Philosophy Program
The University of Texas at Austin
727 East Dean Keeton Street
Austin, TX 78705
Ph:  (512) 232-1319
Fax: (512) 471-6988
Homepage:  http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/bleiter/