Practice Management

Law School Value Versus Rankings - An On The Ground View

By chucknewton

I received a real life example from one of my readers about his cheaper public law school education.  He writes:

I am a recent UND Law alum who passed the bar exam in Indiana (on the first try) and I now have a great, satisfying, and well paying job at a law firm in the South Bend, Indiana area.  My student loans are lower than many of the Notre Dame law graduates that I have met and I am making the same amount of money as many of them.  I know Notre Dame is raked highly in the US News rankings but it didn't mean anything in terms of my bar passage and my finding a job in a Notre Dame regional market area.  I find the whole ranking system silly and misleading.

The advantage is to choose a cheaper public law school with a good bar passage rate regardless of the higher U.S. News rankings, the competition for which substantially raises tuition.  In the long run you will be competing for the same pay as those with higher student loans.  The benefits seem obvious.

Full post as published by Chuck Newton on January 06, 2008 (boomark / email).