welcome to learn law better wondering
how to use law school rankings want to
use them wisely stay to the end as I
cover the four criteria used in law
school rankings and some advice on how
to leverage the ranking so you can get
into the right law school don't forget
to hit the like button if you enjoy this
episode and click the subscribe button
and bell if you don't want to miss any
future episodes hi
this is beau bias and today I want to
discuss law school rankings in the
United States the ranking relied on by
most law students is published by the US
News & World Report
first I will go through their criteria
and then provide you with some advice on
how to use this data in making a
decision one quality assessment 40% of
the ranking is based on a law schools
perceived quality each year siree
they're sent to law school Dean's
associate Dean's professors practicing
attorneys and judges they rate a law
school on a five-point scale ranging
from marginal to outstanding raiders can
choose not to rank every law school but
even then it would be nearly impossible
to know what is going on in even a few
law schools also is a Raider basing
their score on the law school
scholarship they're teaching our passage
job placement or worse a recent
basketball championship or a past
negative interaction with an alumnus
ultimately this criteria is nothing more
than a perception assessment the elite
law schools Harvard Yale Georgetown etc
remain on the top because they are
perceived to be top programs lower
ranked schools can't really move higher
because they are perceived as weak even
when they make significant changes to
their programs and the schools in the
middle can move wildly each year
depending on who rated them too
activity 25% of the ranking is based on
L SAT or GRE scores undergraduate GPA
and acceptance rate this measurement is
less subjective but fails to take into
account undergraduate institution or
major for example a 3.0 GPA from an MIT
engineering major should probably be
weighted higher than the 3.96
I received with a social sciences major
next there is acceptance rate
manipulation law schools will request
students with lower LSAT scores to apply
only to deny them this increases their
ranking but by giving these students
false hope three placement success 20%
of the score is based on job placement
and bar passage this is the least
subjective measure though there is still
some room for manipulation for faculty
resources 15% of the score is based on
the student to faculty ratio
expenditures per student and library
resources
unfortunately these figures are
misleading or irrelevant for example a
law school might have a 6 to 1 student
to faculty ratio but at large law
schools you might never have a class
with less than 75 students the reason
many law schools can report smaller
ratios is because they offer many
boutique courses which very few students
ever take as to library resources who
cares about the number of volumes in the
library most older volumes have been
digitized by Google and then there is
interlibrary loan so this measure helps
older law schools with many older books
and student expenditures is practically
irrelevant since it costs more to hire
staff in cities like New York now let's
discuss how to use the rankings I
suggest that you look at the rankings in
three different ways
elite law schools these are the top 14
national law schools with Georgetown
rounding out the bottom if you can
attend one of these schools you will
have opportunities all over the country
clusters once outside the elite law
schools cluster the rankings treat law
schools within a certain range as
equivalent as you know rank varies from
year to year often wildly outside the
elite law schools the reality is that
most law schools offer a very similar
program of legal education for schools
in the 15 to 50 range cluster them in
groups of 24 schools fifty to a hundred
use clusters of 34 schools below 100
clusters of 50 for example treat schools
25 to 45 as equivalent or schools 102 to
150 as equivalent regional schools these
are the law schools that are strong in a
particular market for example if you are
going to practice in north dakota you
would likely find the University of
North Dakota to be a better choice than
a school that has ranked 40 spots higher
now let's work through an example using
numbers I made up and not tied to any
law school you get accepted to law
school number 36 where you pay full
tuition
you also get accepted into a regional
law school which is ranked 56 which
offers you a 50% tuition discount and is
in the market where you want to practice
now I know that 20 spot seems like a
significant jump to you
but it's not when you start practicing
almost no one will perceive that these
two law schools are different other than
alumni you are probably better off going
with the tuition discount if you enjoy
this material hit the like button also
to avoid missing any future episodes hit
the subscribe and Velma
for more resources to help you get ahead
including my blog and newsletter check
out learn law better calm thanks for
watching