Winners & Losers of the 2006 Rankings

[Fred Hits]

rankings seem to be slowly slipping out of book stores - i picked mine up an hour ago

[SHRN]

Biggest loser:

Emory - 23rd to somewhere in the 30s.  Even more disturbing (and the reason it slipped so far) is a dismal 61% employed at graduation (down from 87%).  Ouch.

[GoHuskies05]

Biggest loser:

Emory - 23rd to somewhere in the 30s.  Even more disturbing (and the reason it slipped so far) is a dismal 61% employed at graduation (down from 87%).  Ouch.

When schools drop so much in employment rates, I often think it is due to a mistake in either printing or reporting.  The mighty University of Washington went through this two years ago and dropped to #45 with schools that were no where near as good as it.  Now it is almost back to where it belongs.

[Runner-up]

Some schools made it into T2 this year after being T3 last year. Not one person going to one of those schools that gained in the rankings is going to dismiss the rankings as "random". As George Carlin said, nobody says its just a game when they're winning.

And, yes, I forgot that the Univ. of Nebraska jumped significantly in the 2006 rankings. Good for them.

[Eegahh]

Maybe I'm blinded by dollar signs, but it seems to me that Case has made considerable gains.  They went up 9 spots, just barely making it into the 1st tier.  Call me a prestige whore, but that does make some minimal difference to me.

And yes, if the opposite had happened and they'd gone down 9 spots I'd probably be talking about how it didn't mean nuthin'.

[PSUDSL08]

Did any schools jump up from T4 to T3? Just wondering if there are any promising schools that could potentially crack T2 within the next few years.

[qwert]

Did any schools jump up from T4 to T3? Just wondering if there are any promising schools that could potentially crack T2 within the next few years.

Yeah, Michigan State made the jump.  Much like Penn State this year...I think this school will hit T2 in the years to come.  Having an affiliation with a Big 10 school cant hurt. 

[MSUDuster]

Have to echo Qwert's sentiment. I think within the next 3 years MSU will become a T2 school. Out of the big 10, I think they might be the only school without a t2 or t1 law school. Only slightly embarassing. Although their law school is quite young compared to the rest.

That being said, the only way I see them becoming a T2 is if they get state funding and drop the whole private thing. The new dean really wants them to be a tier 2. Looking at last year and this year, they've definitely gotten more selective.

[lil_token]

RE: Emory and other schools hurting from placement stats:

Please beware of the statistics provided by the US News.  There are a number of reasons for this word of caution.

1) Stats are completely self-reported, thus who really knows if schools that are reporting "100% placement at graduation" actually place that well. 

2) It is no secret that the US News has previously suffered from reporting mistaktes by the schools (I believe Northwestern misreported a few years back and really took a nosedive).  There are also schools that have alleged that the statistic printed by the US News is not the same as that which the school reported.

3) Statistics are inherently misleading.  What you see is the total percentage of people who are placed within a certain period.  However, the statistic does not reveal how many people actually applied for jobs and were denied.  It does not take into account that many JD job applicants are interested in very specific teaching/public interest/corporate postitions and opt to wait for some time to get a position that ideally meets their specifications rather than immediately taking a job at a schoool/firm/organization/geographic area they do not like. 

I would be more likely to take the rankings more seriously if they actually provided in-depth statistics about where people are applying, where they are being accepted and rejected, at what rate, and how many people are waiting for these very specialized positions, while turning down other immediately available ones.

[Nellabella]

Is NYLS still in Tier 3?  Did it move tiers at all?