Michael Seringhaus, a 1L at Yale Law School (currently #1 on the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings), wrote an articulate editorial for the Hartford Courant about the reaction of law school deans to the rankings' release.

Dean Carolyn Jones of the University of Iowa College of Law responded to that school's slight slide (from 24 to 27) by admitting that "hundreds of hours of sophisticated thought by alumni, faculty and staff" have gone into "studying the U.S. News rankings" — an initiative "informally dubbed the Apollo Project." As a law student, I find it worrisome that a respected dean can issue a letter whose sole purpose is to minimize the importance of the U.S. News rankings, then turn around and obsess over those very rankings.

(To clarify, Dean Jones was not alleged to have written a specific letter; I think Seringhaus is referring to the 2006 joint letter from law school administrators across the country.)

Of course, some of the comments have pointed out the irony (to be kind) in a Yale law student writing an editorial that's critical of rankings. But to be fair, I don't see Mr. Seringhaus's editorial as critical of rankings per se. Rather, he seems to be calling out the deans who appear to be acting in direct contradiction to the joint letter which attempted to downplay the importance of the rankings, in their quick-draw response to last week's release of the rankings. Elsewhere in the editorial, the author cites a few examples -- deans emailing students with pledges to find out why the school slipped, and to make up the lost ground at the earliest possible convenience.

So which is it, law school deans: are the rankings important? Or are they meaningless? The comments are divided, but I propose that the rankings are, as I've stated elsewhere, only one factor to consider in making a good decision about which school to attend.