2005 USNWR Law School Rankings

[lstudent]

What mistake did University of Wash make last year? Not submit the requested info to USNews&WR?  And the result was?

[tahoetahoe]

as a total favor, can someone who has the book tell me what the top 5 business schools are in order?  i would be most appreciative!

[Revenant]

What mistake did University of Wash make last year? Not submit the requested info to USNews&WR?  And the result was?

They submitted an incorrect employment rate for 9 months after graduation.  Their employment rate at graduation was ~77% but their employment rate after 9 months was 75%   This year it's back to 93%.

[lstudent]

And that mistake greatly affected their ranking?  I noticed they were around 50th about last year, and now are at around 35...

[Revenant]

LOL, that took forever on dialup.  They couldn't have made it just a little smaller could they...

[siyang]

And that mistake greatly affected their ranking?  I noticed they were around 50th about last year, and now are at around 35...

before that they were consistently in the 20's.

[elo]

Unfortunately, the difference between 10th and 20th does matter.  Not because the quality of education is different, but because the rankings are so self-reinforcing.  It's totally circular.

Why is school X ranked highly?  Because smart people choose to go there.  Why do smart people choose to go there?  Because it's ranked highly.

A school that changes in rank gets a different set of applicants, and that changes its reputation without its actual educational quality changing at all.

Smart people are able to look past the rankings system and choose the best institution for their needs. The ones who assume that USNWR rankings are dispositive with regard to which schools are best may get lucky, but theirs is neither the only approach nor the best.

The best law firms, by the way, have the benefit of seeing how new associates do over time. As a result, they usually have a very good idea which schools are turning out quality people. Do you seriously think that those firms bother to see which schools are moving up and down USNWR's ranking each year? I can assure you that the best firms couldn't care less what USNWR thinks.

E.L.

[Revenant]

That being said, it never hurts to graduate from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, NYU or UChicago

[toiysam]

Check the 2lawschool official rankings.

http://2lawschool.blog-city.com

[JG]

Smart people are able to look past the rankings system and choose the best institution for their needs. The ones who assume that USNWR rankings are dispositive with regard to which schools are best may get lucky, but theirs is neither the only approach nor the best.

The best law firms, by the way, have the benefit of seeing how new associates do over time. As a result, they usually have a very good idea which schools are turning out quality people. Do you seriously think that those firms bother to see which schools are moving up and down USNWR's ranking each year? I can assure you that the best firms couldn't care less what USNWR thinks.

E.L.

No, I don't think firms care about schools moving up and down in the rankings.  As you say, they care which schools are turning out quality people.  As schools go up in the rankings, higher quality people decide to attend those schools, and higher quality people then come out of them.  That's not because the quality of the education has improved (a thing that's incredibly difficult to determine), but because the students start out with a higher level of ability.

And whatever you think about smart people looking past the rankings to make their decision, it's simply not happening in the vast majority of cases.  People might not always choose the higher ranked school when considering two that are closely ranked, but the rankings are a huge factor.