February 12, 2013

"The National Jurist contains a law school ranking alternative to U.S. News & World Report..."

"... using the following methodology:"
Post-Graduate Success:  50%
Employment Rate:  22.5%
Super Lawyers:  12.5%
Partners in NLJ 200:  10%
Bar Passage:  5%

Student Satisfaction:  35%
RateMyProfessors.com:  20%
Princeton Review:  15%

Affordability and Diversity:  15%
Debt:  10%
Diversity:  5%
Some of those factors are incredibly lame/immensely manipulable, but I suppose I should like it because my school does well on it.

14 comments:

john said...

Did they include diversity?

Did they include diversity?

Anonymous said...

The best law schools are the ones that churn out money making lawyers?

OK, I guess.

Bryan C said...

"Affordability and Diversity" seems like a strange grouping. Is this some sort of euphemism?

AllenS said...

Diversity = those that will graduate and those that will drop out because they shouldn't probably have been there in the first place.

jimbino said...

Diversity is a crock. It means count the women and minorities.

Minorities have a case to make at public law schools, since their tribe foots the bills but suffers exclusion. Women, being in the majority, have a voice to challenge discrimination at the voting booth.

There is no true diversity in law school. By that I mean that almost all law students are ignorant of STEM subjects, not to mention economics.

FleetUSA said...

Very interesting. I am not surprised that Virginia ranks at #2. I have met many Virginia lawyers during my career and they were always the least ego-driven and fairest of them all.

Since moving to the Charlottesville area I met a freshman at a fundraiser and she said the school makes a point of stressing teamwork as well as quality.

I guess the "ol' South" has something to show those Yankees after all.

Wince said...

Why can't they come up with an interactive page/app that allows the user to apportion the weights among the criteria, as long as the sum equals 100%?

Robert Cook said...

How is the list traditionally used by US News & World Reports any less suspect than the rankings achieved using these other factors?

Anonymous said...

There should be some correction for selection bias (i.e., the better perceived schools can select the better candidates, who may succeed in spite of rather than because of the school). Which is a better school, the one that can take a great student and then produce a great graduate or one that can take lesser students and turn them in to great graduates?

Patrick said...

How is the list traditionally used by US News & World Reports any less suspect than the rankings achieved using these other factors?

It's not. There has been widespread dissatisfaction with USN's methodology, which pretty much concentrates on how the schools view each other based on things that don't end up contributing much to the law student. This is an attempt to fix that.

MadisonMan said...

I see Vanderbilt >> Wisconsin. No wonder Lorrie Moore is moving.

Nathan said...

This methodology includes Boston University in the top 20 and moves Boston College waaaaaay down to #48. I am well pleased.

traditionalguy said...

The Courts are political creations charged with performing a joint undertaking of lawyers and Judges based upon arguing accepted legal precedents to control cases for the benefit of people who pay the lawyers. It is a competitive activity.

The Jury system is the reason it remains mostly fair. Respect for that system is a big deal if Justice is a goal besides who gets the most money.

Laws against Tort liability are a threat to everyone except those who never get hurt.

But today the affordability of legal talent is a big issue. Texas is a leader in tort reform laws that simply take access to the legal talent out of the injured persons hands.

Anonymous said...

So Obama was a lecturer at a law school that wasn't even in the top 50?