EXCLUSIVE: Clerical error may push Georgetown out of U.S. News Top 14

Due to a clerical error, the Georgetown Law is in danger of falling out of U.S. News’ Top 14 for the first time since the magazine started ranking law schools. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.Rankings giveth, and clerical errors taketh away.

Due to an unknown clerical error, the incoming 1L class’ GPA and LSAT numbers submitted to U.S. News and World Report were inflated. The correct numbers have been reported, and according to Dean of Admissions Andy Cornblatt, “Georgetown’s ranking will suffer significantly as a result. We may very well drop out of the top 14.”

Explaining the decision to release the news through the Law Weekly, Dean Cornblatt offered that “[the Administration’s] first responsibility is to the students, and students deserve to hear this directly from us. We made a mistake. It was our responsibility, and we’re sorry.”

The error was first discovered while the administration was preparing for a “routine review” several weeks ago. The Dean of Admissions’ Office immediately launched into a complete review of the reported data to discover the scope and extent of the error.

Asked why this knowledge is only now being released, Cornblatt explained that “initially, we did not know the extent of the error or if it was confined to the data for the incoming first year class. I didn’t want to cause a panic until we knew exactly what had gone wrong.”

While the error itself will damage Georgetown’s reputation, the implications of a rankings drop are much more pernicious.

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Tiffany Li contributed to “reporting” this story.