Will the April USN Rankings affect your Choice?

[SleepyGuyYawn]

USN Rankings come out in April.

If you found out your chosen school had dropped significantly in the rankings -- and your second school had risen, would you make a different decision?

I was thinking about this -- b/c as much as I disagree with the way the USN rankings are done, they're so self-fufilling.  I'm pretty sure I'll go to Pitt.  I wonder how they'll fare in this year's rankings...

[seankenn]

I too am looking at Pitt as my top choice presently, but I am unsure of their jump into the first tier last year.  Was it a fluke?  I hope they are on the rise, but who knows?  The new rankings may affect my decision, but as of right now Pitt is the best school I have gotten into.  Not too sure about the east coast, though.  I have never really had a chance to check it out yet.

[Troy McClure]

If the answer is yes, I recommend murder suicide as your only option.

Rankings do matter but not the change of a few places from one year to the next.  Look at the historical ranking, and you'll see most schools are pretty much where they've always been.  Going from 75 to 73 means very little.

[thelawfool]

I'm hoping to go to a tier 3 or 4 that just happens to sneak into the top 100.  Kinda like Hofstra did.  Thing is that how much better does a school like Hofstra look in the Tier 2 category.  When in April they could just as easily slip back into Tier 3 and be listed in alphabetical order.  Thats what people should be concerned with.  Not so much the schools in Tier 2 moving up a spot or two.

[SleepyGuyYawn]

A one or two point change in the "raw score" can mean many places in the rankings.  So the rankings are a bit arbitrary to be sure.  Self-fufilling, but at the same time arbitrary.

It's the big jumps that scare me.  Like Tulane going from 45 to 56 or whatever.

As for Pitt, I think they've been just on the cusp of the fist tier for some time.  Perhaps the addition of scholars such as Richard Delgato (one of the most famous critical legal theorists) helped it climb into the 1st tier.  The harder admissions standards couldn't have hurt either.

[VivaLaMuerte]

Pitt has a lot of money and has been buying good professors away from higher ranked schools for some time.  I think their reputation score will continue to improve, their admissions stats will continue to improve, and their placement will remain very solid, if a bit regionally limited.  I think the simpler point about Pitt, though, is that, if you prefer to live in Pitt than Boston, for instance, Pitt is a better school than BU or BC.  Overall, no one would say such a thing about those schools, pointing to the vast difference in rankings.  But Pittsburgh lawyers are loyal to Pitt and Duquesne grads, and any cursory or in-depth search of NALP and Martindale will show this.  It's never gonna be top-20, but if it even falls slightly in the rankings, it won't have any significant negative effects.  And evidence suggests that the only movement will be in the other direction.

[Fred Hits]

i cant say it would def change my mind but it could play a factor- i honestly think for me it is going to come down to bc or gw pt.  if it seems bc's big drop last year stays- that says to me they are still a great school but that there might be a problem or two (from what i hear about their career services this mite be true) and i think gw will stay top 20.  basically it means to me gw is slightly better then bc and all things being equal (which is a huge assumption) i'd then possibly go to gw instead

[lonahawk]

It's possible - right now, as my recent string of rejections may indicate - I'll probably end up choosing betwen WUSTL & GW --- if either falls significantly in the rankings - I'd probably go with the higher ranked one.  I'd be just as happy living in Chicago vs. DC/NYC when I'm done with grad school - so it's difficult for me to make a choice.

[Maverick21]

what day does the 06 rankings come out? is it a certain date or more like ballpark early to mid april? I ask b/c most of my 1st deposits are due on the 15 of april

[dr_draino]

difference between 45 and 56 is minimal...anyone that bases their decision on rankings movement is a complete moron

A one or two point change in the "raw score" can mean many places in the rankings.  So the rankings are a bit arbitrary to be sure.  Self-fufilling, but at the same time arbitrary.

It's the big jumps that scare me.  Like Tulane going from 45 to 56 or whatever.

As for Pitt, I think they've been just on the cusp of the fist tier for some time.  Perhaps the addition of scholars such as Richard Delgato (one of the most famous critical legal theorists) helped it climb into the 1st tier.  The harder admissions standards couldn't have hurt either.