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Law School Rankings in 2010

ryan-frank | Jan 4, 2010 |

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Graduate schools are among the most competitive institutions in the country. From Med school to Veterinarian school to Law School, getting into a highly competitive program can be extremely difficult. Many recent graduates do not realize how difficult it often is for these institutions to reach and maintain these competitive rankings. Just this year Harvard Law has overtaken Stanford Law for the first time in years. There have been many other shocking changes in the list of the 100 Best Law Schools, but that was the biggest one to occur in the top ten.

Law school rankings can be quite involved and complicated. There are four tiers in the rankings. The first two tiers are those that make it into the top 100 schools. After that is the third tier, and finally the fourth.

There are two basic scores that are considered when ranking each school. The first is Quality Score and the second is Placement Success. A school's quality score is taken from many different arenas of assessment. Student surveys, selectivity, acceptance rates, median undergraduate GPAs, median LSAT scores, and lawyers' assessment scores are combined in an algorithm to rate each institution. While many of these assessments are relatively subjective and cannot be taken strictly at face value, it does give potential students the opportunity to find areas of expertise at institutions based on what it is specifically important to them.

The Placement Success score is relatively self-explanatory. The rate of employment for graduates and rate of bar exam passage are the two main categories in this score. For some, these outcomes are the most important factors when choosing a law school, while others rely on their own ambitions to fuel their success after graduating.

A combination of these two scores provide enough information on all different aspects of the schools to help parents, potential students, potential faculty members, and professionals determine the success of each institution for their individual needs. Even people who work for legal staffing agencies use these scores to help them pair potential employees with jobs across the country.