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Anyone who has ever applied to law school is probably familiar with US News & World
Report ranking of law schools. Ever wonder how those rankings are determined? The
following gives a brief outline of that process.
Twenty-five percent of a school’s overall score is determined by a survey of law school
academics. Four people at each law school get a survey asking them to rank the other
law schools for relative merit, one a scale of one to five (one is marginal and five is
outstanding).
Fifteen percent of the score is determined by a survey of legal professionals who
regularly hire new law school graduates. For this portion, a survey is sent to hiring
partners at large law firms, federal or state judges who hire clerks, state attorney generals
and others. They rate the schools on the same one-to-five scale.
Another twenty-five percent of a school’s score is based on student selectivity. US
News uses statistics from the Law School Admission Council for each school on the
median law school admission test score of its incoming class (12.5 percent of the score),
the median undergraduate grade point average (10 percent of the score) and its
acceptance rate compared to the volume of its applicants (2.5 percent of the score).
Graduate job placement is worth twenty percent of the overall score. US News uses
statistics from the American Bar Association for each school on employment rates at
graduation (4 percent of the score) and nine months after graduation (14 percent of the
score) and the school’s first time bar passage rate compared to the state’s overall rate (2
percent of the score).
Finally, faculty resources make up the remaining fifteen percent of a school’s score. US
News uses statistics from the ABA for each school on the number of volumes and titles in
the law library at each school (.75 percent of the score), the student-to-faculty ratio (3
percent of the score) and the school’s average expenditures on instruction and noninstructional
items (11.25 percent).
In addition to rankings, students should consider a school’s program offerings, location,
size, and cost when considering where to go to law school. Visiting various law schools,
too, while perhaps costly and time-consuming, can be worth it in the long run.
This information was reprinted with permission from preLaw magazine. To see a digital
version of the complete article from the Fall 2006 issue (Vol.10, No.1), go to:
www.prelawinsider.com.