Best Law School Ranking List???? I know it isn't U.S. News!

[jinc1019]

I know U.S. News is head shoulders above the rest when it comes to the list that matters the most in the perception of the world BUT it is certainly NOT the best list in my opinion. So what is the best list based on methodology, career prospects, admission data, reputation, etc? I mean, the whole purpose of these lists is to determine which schools will give you, the prospective law student, the best chance of success. I know that no list is perfect, but there has to be some kind of hierarchy. U.S. News cannot possibly be the best list out there...even if it is the most used and watched list.

[nealric]

US News is about right for the top 14. After that, the NLJ 250 placement ranking is an OK (but imperfect) bet.

The problem with rankings is that they are one-size fits all. Not everyone has the same financial situation, and not everyone has the same post-graduation goals.

[lawstudent2011]

http://www.cooley.edu/rankings/nfl_analogy.html

http://www.cooley.edu/rankings/overall2010.html

Someone really should congradulate Cooley; they went from #12 in their own rankings up to #2 beat only by Harvard.

Take that Princton, Yale,etc,etc.......

[NonTradInSATX]

Best Ranking List?  Definitely Cooley!   

[nealric]

http://www.cooley.edu/rankings/nfl_analogy.html

http://www.cooley.edu/rankings/overall2010.html

Someone really should congradulate Cooley; they went from #12 in their own rankings up to #2 beat only by Harvard.

Take that Princton, Yale,etc,etc.......

Everybody knows that Princeton has the best law school.

[bigs5068]

Cooley's rankings do make nearly as much sense as U.S. News. I think it is awesome they publish their own. U.S. News is probably correct for the first 25 or so schools, but then it is based on quite literally nothing just like Cooley. Actually Cooley's makes more sense because you can at least measure the number of chairs in a school. That is at least something real about the school. I don't know how much it really helps, but it is nice to have space. U.S. News is  some judge in Maine checking a scantron of excllent, good, very good, marginal to rank Williamette over Gonzaga two schools the judge has never been to or met anyone from. Or a judge in San Francisco checking those same boxes to distinguish Franklin Pierce from Suffolk. It makes no sense they do count bar passage as 2% of the ranking for U.S. News and as law student I think it is important to pass the bar, but that is just me.

[jinc1019]

Cooley's rankings do make nearly as much sense as U.S. News. I think it is awesome they publish their own. U.S. News is probably correct for the first 25 or so schools, but then it is based on quite literally nothing just like Cooley. Actually Cooley's makes more sense because you can at least measure the number of chairs in a school. That is at least something real about the school. I don't know how much it really helps, but it is nice to have space. U.S. News is  some judge in Maine checking a scantron of excllent, good, very good, marginal to rank Williamette over Gonzaga two schools the judge has never been to or met anyone from. Or a judge in San Francisco checking those same boxes to distinguish Franklin Pierce from Suffolk. It makes no sense they do count bar passage as 2% of the ranking for U.S. News and as law student I think it is important to pass the bar, but that is just me.

It amazes me how U.S. News can get away with this system. Imagine a magazine that judges restaurants and determines which restaurants are ranked where by going to the restaurants right across the street, telling them they want to publish a nationally recognized list of which these other restaurants are also on, and then asking them their opinion of the surrounding restaurants who just so happen to be in sink or swim compeition with them. It's ridiculous. If I was an IIT-Chicago Kent alum, chances are I would never give Loyola-Chicago or DePaul anywhere near a fair rating because I know it would help MY school out.

And, if they asked my opinion of some school I know nothing about it Alabama or New Hampshire, I would probably just make a guess based on the previous U.S. News data.

[the white rabbit]

And, if they asked my opinion of some school I know nothing about it Alabama or New Hampshire, I would probably just make a guess based on the previous U.S. News data.

This is why the reputation scores only really make sense for the top 15-20 schools, which as someone pointed out is about how far USNews makes sense.

[lawstudent2011]

Is it any suprise then that their top competitor TimeMagazine wrote an article questioning the rankings system?
How long untill they do the same do you think?

And, if they asked my opinion of some school I know nothing about it Alabama or New Hampshire, I would probably just make a guess based on the previous U.S. News data.

This is why the reputation scores only really make sense for the top 15-20 schools, which as someone pointed out is about how far USNews makes sense.

[bigs5068]

Unfounded rankings systems are all the rage now. I love it on yahoo news Stockton was ranked the worst city in America by god knows who, but somebody somewhere said Stockton was the worst city. People will go with it. A truly amazing thing has come out in high school basketball, which just shows how ridiclous rankings in our country and probably every in the world has become. Maxpreps.com Look at this site and find your high school wherever you went has been ranked in every sport from 1-20,000. According to some organization that doesn't even publish a formula. It is ridiculous in my high school conference there are teams rated 34 in the country 1,429, 800, 6,204, and 3,249, the team that is 34th in the country is awesome the other ones are interchangeable on any given day one beats the other and it happened.  As truly sad as it is I have had family friends call and ask me if they should transfer their kid from high school x ranked 2,432 to high school x ranked 1,729. 

According to the post about judging restaurants based on arbitrary unfounded rankings that exists as well. Restaurants are Zagat rated what the hell does that mean it is a stamp that almost every restaurant in San Francisco or New York seems to have I have not lived anywhere else recently, but Zagat some organization somewhere saying this is good comes up with a ranking.

The whole ranking system in our culture makes absolutely no sense. In California everyone was saying we ranked 43rd in the state education and America is something like 28th internationally for education again who the hell is coming up with this and more importantly how are they coming up with them??? Journalists just go with someone saying that person was 29th best and assume it is true.

That is a complete and basically incoherent rant on how rankings just come out of nowhere and basically based on nothing in all aspects of life and should not be taken seriously. Since this is a law school discussion board when choosing your school use something called common sense, which I almost did not use and ended up in Michigan. Harvard is a great school, Yale is a great school, Stanford is a great school. If you think anyone is going to respect Michigan State over Chapman because some organization said Michigan State was 89th while Chapman was 93rd then you are probably mistaken. I am sure someone out there would take it seriously, but it probably would not be a good idea.