What can USNEWS *REALISTICALLY* do to improve the rankings?

[Fred Hits]

by realistic i mean stuff like 'dont use any lsat or peer numbers' isn't really an option

if you have an idea go ahead and list it- here is mine

when having reputation scores filled out, let it be on a 10 point scale. 


Why?  Right now the rankings are so incredibly bunched up that there needs to be a little more seperation.  Ranking from 1-5 is very difficult.  Think about if you were filling the survey out.  You would likely reserve a '1' for the tier 4 and a good amount of tier 3 schools.  You would likely use the '5' on schools in the t14.  A '4' in most of the rest of the top 40 or so, a 3 in the mid to end of tier 2 and a '2' in the remainder.  Thing is there really isn't much room to really rank.  For example what if i as a person being surveyed think ND is a better school then UNC (purely hypo).  I want to give ND a better score then UNC but i can't justify putting ND in the same category as yale.  At the same time i can't justify dropping UNC's score down.  So I just give them the same score.  Giving a 1-10 range allows for a much more accurate reflection of what the peer scores are.  And since that is 40% of the ranking, i think it would play an important roll in stopping ties and giving a more accurate reflection of the method USNews seesm to like

[ScienceAndLaw]

Put 80% of the ranking on reputation scores.  5% on incomming LSAT median and 5% on incomming GPA median and 5% on employed at 9 months, 2% on yeild and 3% on facilities (buildings, technology).

[blocke123]

Put 80% of the ranking on reputation scores.  5% on incomming LSAT median and 5% on incomming GPA median and 5% on employed at 9 months, 2% on yeild and 3% on facilities (buildings, technology).

Our tuition dollars and other monies are incentives to law schools.  As most law students find the US News rankings a great guide to deciding where to go these rankings are "measurements" that will yeild those incentives.  So what you really should be asking is what do we want law schools to do? 

I want them to help me get a good job.  I'd say 95% of rankings should be future career prospects.  Rankings should be based on the ability of law schools to get us jobs.

["V"]

Reputation is, in large part, established by the USNEWS rankings themselves. To place an over-emphasis on the reputation score would put an unfair and nearly unalterable benefit to the current top schools, and weight against the lower ranked schools.

I think that's possibly the worst suggestion that could be offered.

[shaz]

toledo gives out a ton of money and they have insane graduation employment stats.  i take this to mean that their career services office must be awesome.  i really think i got a good deal there.  i'm 90% sure that's where i'm headed. 

[blocke123]

Reputation is, in large part, established by the USNEWS rankings themselves. To place an over-emphasis on the reputation score would put an unfair and nearly unalterable benefit to the current top schools, and weight against the lower ranked schools.

I think that's possibly the worst suggestion that could be offered.

Actually since all we really concern ourself is the ability to get work why do we care about anything but reputation and the placement data?

[Happy_Weasel]

Maybe it should just be diversity of courses and career prospects.


Keep the reputation the way they are, but make it more of a 20/10, favoring firms.

It should be

10- peer review
20- employer review
20- average salary FOR ALL students/COL
5- Clerkship placement (more points for feds)
5- Academia
10- Employment Rate
10- Bar Passage
10- SF Ratio
10- Classes per student

[blocke123]

Maybe it should just be diversity of courses and career prospects.


Keep the reputation the way they are, but make it more of a 20/10, favoring firms.

It should be

10- peer review
20- employer review
20- average salary FOR ALL students/COL
5- Clerkship placement (more points for feds)
5- Academia
10- Employment Rate
10- Bar Passage
10- SF Ratio
10- Classes per student

Average salary doesn't make any sense because you're giving undue weight to schools who place in major cities.  Iowa has a crappy average salary but does that mean I should go to Loyola-Chicago instead of Iowa?

Also, I really don't know if people will care too much about SF ratio/classes per student.  This feels like a "soft" number that won't help you get the next job.

Then again, maybe its best if schools aren't RANKED at all.  Maybe they should provide us with raw data and we should make our own rankings.

[philibusters]

I think USNEWS does tend to gear towards how good law schools are at getting you jobs.  40% of rankings are based on reputation, 22.5 % is based on lsat and gpa, which tells you how students view the schools because usually students pick the school they think offers them the best chance to succeed.  The bar passage rate and employed at graduation and 9 months laters also factor in, so that the majority of the currently rankings is geared towards a school's reputation.

[Happy_Weasel]

Yes. It sorta does that already. Though, giving you a picture of what you could be doing afterwards is also important.