LS ranking (tier?)

[ladylaw]

I'll be a 1L this fall.  I'm going to Cleveland-Marshall.  Because of my circumstances
(FT job, husband, kids) it was my only option (Case Western, a more prestigious LS, doesn't offer a PT/evening program)

Just FYI, I'm not concerned about how well I'll do because of the school's ranking because I'm confident in my abilities and I personally know several very successful alumni and we have a few prestigious Alumni.   Anyway, I'm just curious about where C-M ranks.  How can I find out? or does anyone know?

[mikebravo]

If you put any stock into them try www.usnews.com (look on the left side under "rankings and guides") or www.lawschool100.com.
LawSchool 100 only does the top 100 schools and "lumps" the rest.  US News will break each school into 4 different tiers.  Hope this helps.

[davial]

However fair or not it is USnews rankings that employers and students give the most weight too. C-M is in the 4th tier but has a decent reputation in Cleveland,.

[sneekycheeks]

The dubious value of law school rankings:

According to US News, Pace U. Law is a Tier 3 school (due, in part, to its outstanding environmental law program, no?) whereas Suffolk U. Law is Tier 4.

In sharp (if not, stark) contrast, however, The Law School 100 ranks Suffolk in the Top 100 and Pace is lumped in with the lower-tiered also-rans.

And finally, according to ILRG's 2003 statistics, the two schools are nearly identical:

Pace University   
GPA: 3.01/3.52
LSAT: 151/156
Accept Rate: 35.40%
S/F Ratio: 16.2   
Employ @Grad/9Mos: 61%/91.50%
Bar Pass/State Avg: 64.80%/76%

Suffolk University
GPA: 3.2/3.5
LSAT: 151/157
Accept Rate: 48.30%
S/F Ratio: 18.7   
Employ @Grad/9Mos: 61.40%/93.90%
Bar Pass/State Avg: 77.30%/81%

I recently persuaded Suffolk to take me off their Wait List and into their Day Division F/T - whereas I had previously accepted Pace's offer (and must now decline).

Without getting into too much detail: my wife and life are in Boston and it was more or less a necessity I remain here and attend law school in Boston (I asked Northeastern and BU for the same opportunity, but they declined).

Ultimately my questions are:

What is the value of law school rankings if they differ?

Have any of you read the Ph.D-penned paper debunking the validity of US News' law school rankings [ http://www.aals.org/validity.html ]?

Am I really doing myself and my wife and future family a disservice by attending a Tier 4 vs. a Tier 3?

Or do the rankings themselves (outside, arguably the Top 25 if not the Top 10) mean as much as the popular vote in a presidential election?

[eee]

The dubious value of law school rankings:

According to US News, Pace U. Law is a Tier 3 school (due, in part, to its outstanding environmental law program, no?) whereas Suffolk U. Law is Tier 4.

I recently persuaded Suffolk to take me off their Wait List and into their Day Division F/T - whereas I had previously accepted Pace's offer (and must now decline).

Without getting into too much detail: my wife and life are in Boston and it was more or less a necessity I remain here and attend law school in Boston (I asked Northeastern and BU for the same opportunity, but they declined).

if you are planning on working in boston after you graduate from suffolk, i would not be one bit concerned. i'll also be in the boston area for school next year and was trying to decide between suffolk (which gave me a full scholarship), bc and bu. i spoke to a cousin of mine who just retired as senior partner of one of the huge boston law firms. his take on the schools was this:

at least locally, suffolk has a very solid reputation and it is steadily getting better (especially with the construction of their new building). this isnt to say that suffolk is exactly on par with bu, bc or (of course) harvard... but the respect it garners is certainly leagues above what you would expect from a T4 school. he said he viewed it just a little below northeastern.

bottom line: if you want to stay in boston after graduating, i think (and i think my cousin would agree) that you would be infinitely better off going to suffolk than pace. with the exception of just a few super-elite schools (harvard, yale, columbia, etc...) just about every school is subject to its own regional bias. this bias is the result of both increased familiarity and name recognition as well as stronger alumni connections. even if two schools are ranked the same... the local school will always do better.

congrats on getting into Suffolk’s day division, btw.
.