Top 20 IP Schools

[Oski03]

Anyone got the full USNWR rankings for IP programs?

Thanks!

[Happy_Weasel]

1) UC
2) Stanford
3) George Washington
4)Houston
5)Cardozo-Yeshiva
6)Franklin Peirce
7)Columbia
8)Dook and NYU TIED
10)Boston

Those are the top 10.

[Oski03]

Thanks!

UC = UC Berkeley?
Boston = Boston University?

[txaggie]

I got this list off of another post... hopefully it's correct.

1.   University of California–Berkeley
2.   Stanford University (CA)
3.   George Washington University (DC)
4.   University of Houston
5.   Cardozo-Yeshiva University (NY)
6.   Franklin Pierce Law Center (NH)
7.   Columbia University (NY)
8.   Duke University (NC)
       New York University
10.  Boston University
11.  DePaul University (IL)
       Harvard University (MA)
13.  Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago-Kent)
14.  Georgetown University (DC)
15.  John Marshall Law School (IL)
       Santa Clara University (CA)
17.  University of Minnesota–Twin Cities
18.  University of Texas–Austin
19.  Michigan State University
       Washington University in St. Louis
21.  University of California–Los Angeles
22.  Fordham University (NY)
       University of Pennsylvania
24.  University of Washington
25.  George Mason University (VA)
26.  Boston College
27.  Case Western Reserve University (OH)
       University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

[paran0id]

Not to rain on any parades, but how much do these rankings really matter? They're not based on any sort of hiring/salary data. Some of these schools you expect to see (UC-B, Stanford, GWU, Columbia, Duke, etc, etc), but some of these others?! DePaul, Kent, John Marshall, MSU? I find it hard to believe that you'd be better off going to DePaul than any top 20 that didn't make this list.

[nubova]

Specialty rankings were introduced as a means for selling more volumes of USNWR, and as such, they are extremely speculative in nature. As you go through the process of job searching in law school, your realise very quickly that choosing GW over GULC or BU over harvard is meaningless.

The Point:
Specialty rankings go to the professors at the school. Schools that have to top IP specialists will have high rankings. However, the point of law school is not so much to learn the law (the firms actually teach you this when you graduate, you'll see) but to obtain employment. Thus, your goal should be to get employed. As such, you should go to teh school that places extremely well either nationally, or in your market. If you dont have the opportunity to go to a school that places well nationally, and you dont have a market, shoot for a school that places well in an IP dominated market.

Top IP markets: Regional schools that place best in market in order
NY   - Ford, (dont know rest)
DC   - DC, WM, American
BOS   - BC, BU, NEU, Suffolk
N. CA - UCLA, Berk, Hastings

[RallyMonkey]

Specialty rankings are on somewhat tenuous grounds as a whole, but if any are to be taken seriously, IP is the one.  Supposedly it matters more for IP than for any other "specialty."

As a student going into IP, I've made the decision to go to the best school in my region, regardless of it's strength in IP. That's the advice that I've been given several times.

With that said, the school I'm likely going to choose (Iowa) has two of top IP profs in the country, so I'm not shortchanging myself with my decision.

[Actual 1L]

Not to rain on any parades, but how much do these rankings really matter?

They mean even less than the USNEWS overall rankings, which really says something b/c those rankings mean nothing.

[Actual 1L]

They mean even less than the USNEWS overall rankings, which really says something b/c those rankings mean nothing.

Well, you may not like or agree with the USNWR rankings, but they certainly do NOT mean "nothing."  They mean a lot -- a lot more than they should, but there's no sense in ignoring that fact.

It depends who you ask.  The vast majority of law firms have the schools from which they recruit pretty much set in stone.  You won't see many firms all of a sudden start adding schools b/c they moved up a few places in USNEWS rankings.  What you'll see is law firms add schools they recruit from b/c they have had students from those school do well at their firm and figure they should have an on campus presence.  Or they'll see that a certain school has added top faculty in an area the firm specializes in or has relationships with, so they will begin to recruit there.  Or former partners in firms who have gone back to teach at a particular school draw that firm to campus.

In the big picture, USNEWS means very little.  Unfortunately, it means so much to stupid law school applicants that schools must also take it into considersation with admissions decisions.  But USNEWS has not changed the fact that there are 10 or 15 schools that have a very national reputation, while the rest focus more on the region in which they are located.  What most folks fail to realize is that with or without USNEWS, the top schools in the country would still be the top schools.  And for the rest of the schools, which focus mostly on their region, it's the alumni that drive the reputation of the school (from a lawyer's career perspective). 

For example, if Northwestern dropped 5 spots in the next rankings, it would not change the fact that pretty much every firm in Chicago recruits VERY deep into Northwestern's class.  Additionally, if Loyola or Kent jumped 10 or even 15 spots in the rankings, it would not change the fact that BigLaw firms require you to be top 15% to interview at these schools.  So, in the grand scheme of things, the rankings mean very little.

[bass]

Say you get into Yale and Boalt, and want to do IP.

Where do you go?

That's why specialty rankings, even in IP, shouldn't be given too much weight.