I previously blogged the lists of the Top 10 law schools in eleven categories posted on Princeton Review’s web site in connection with its publication of the 2011 edition of Best 172 Law Schools (with the University of Cincinnati College of Law again on the cover). The rankings are the result of Princeton Review’s survey of 18,000 students at the 172 law schools, along with school statistics provided by administrators.
I have extracted from the individual profiles of the 172 law schools all of the available data to rank the schools in six categories. I will report each day on one of the ranking categories.
Career Rating: How well the law school prepares its students for a successful career in law, on a scale of 60 to 99. The rating incorporates school-reported data and the average responses of law students at the school to a few questions on our law student survey. We ask law schools for the average starting salaries of graduating students, the percentage of graduating students who find employment after graduation, and the percentage of students who pass the bar exam the first time they take it. We ask students about how much the law program encourages practical experience; the opportunities for externships, internships, and clerkships; and how prepared to practice law they feel after graduating.
Here are the law schools with the highest and lowest career ratings (an asterisk indicates that the school’s administrators did not supply the Princeton Review with the requested statistical information):
School
Score
School
Score
1
Northwestern
99
148
Campbell
70
NYU
99
149
Oklahoma City
69
Pennsylvania
99
Oregon
69
4
Chicago
98
151
Akron
68
Harvard
98
Hamline
68
Vanderbilt
98
Southern Illinois
68
7
Boston College
97
UCLA
68
Michigan
97
155
South Carolina
67
Virginia
97
St. Thomas (Miami)
67
10
Boston University
96
Valparaiso
67
Notre Dame
96
West Virginia
67
Texas
96
159
Arkansas-Fay.
66
13
Geo. Washington
95
Touro
66
Stanford
95
Washburn
66
Wake Forest
95
162
Missouri-Columbia
65
16
Georgetown
94
163
Ohio Northern
64
USC
94
Rutgers-Newark
64
UC-Davis
94
165
Arkansas-Little Rock
63
19
Columbia
93
South Dakota
63
Fordham
93
167
Idaho
62
UC-Berkeley
93
168
Appalachian
61
22
Alabama
92
Thomas Cooley
61
Yale
92
170
Phoenix*
60
24
Cornell
91
Southern*
60
Duke
91
Washington U.*
60
UC-Hastings
91
Unfortunately, the Princeton Review did not release the response rate per school, so it is impossible to determine how the rankings are affected by each school’s representation among the respondents.
For prior years’ rankings, see:
