Practice Management

We all want to feel good about ourselves.  We want to think we are the best, or at least trying to be the best we can.  The same is true for institutions like law schools.  So, U.S. News & World Reports comes along and starts ranking law schools.  Law schools in return start spending tons of money and molding their practices to game the U.S. News system.  It has probably reach the point where it has corrupted the system, and now too many law schools are trying to serve the U.S News ranking system and not its core constituency -- law students.  There are those that will argue that a good student's difficulty in getting into law school, and the overwhelming cost a student will have to suffer for his or her legal education is directly related to too many law schools gaming the system due to the U.S. News rankings.

If you want to go to law schools you need to be cautious of the U.S. News rankings as well, and you need to be skeptical of the law schools that fight for those rankings.  It is increasingly clear that U.S. News does not weigh those factors that are the most beneficial for you.

PreLaw Magazine published a comparison of what factors students find important and how they calculate into the U.S. News Rankings.  It is enlightening.

On a scale of 1 to 5 law students believe that the cost of tuition at a law school should be a 3 in any consideration of a law school.  U.S. News does not even consider the cost of tuition in its rankings.  So, if a law school is increasing tuition by double digits every year, you know why.  Cost is no option when it comes to U.S. News.

The bar passage rate of the law school is given ranked a 4.27 by law students.  And, why not?  The law school might not need to teach the test, but if do not pass the bar after graduation easily, then what is  the point.  If it is just credentials you are after, you might as well attend some online law school.  The bar passage rate of any school only accounts for 2% (let me repeat that - 2 percent) of the weight given a law school's rank by U.S. News.

Practical skills training is important to law school students.  They want to learn reasoning and the law, but they also want to leave law school, with their mountain of debt, practice ready.  They at least want to have practical training programs available to them in law school.  On the 1 to 5 scale law school students gave practical skills training availability a 3.88.  It does not even factor into the U.S. News rankings.

The amount of money you can reasonably make after law school plays no part in the U.S. News rankings.  Law Students give  median starting salaries for a law schools graduates a 3.25 on a scale from 1 to 5.  U.S. News does not even consider it in its rankings.

Likewise, job placement rate sores a 3.76 for law students, but constitutes only 4% of the weight given the U.S. News ranking system.

Give too much weight to the U.S. News rankings and you might find yourself at a law school that simply respects the U.S. News rankings more that its students.  You will be more prone to graduate from a law school that costs too much, forcing you to take on too much debt, with a lower prospect of immediately passing the bar exam, only to be stuck in a low paying job -- if you can find one.  How will you know if you rely on the U.S. News law school rankings?

Law school choice depends ultimately on which law schools accept you.  If you have a choice in law schools, just chunk the U.S. News rankings.  They are designed ultimately to sell publications and advertising.  You need to visit the schools and go where you feel comfortable.