Following up on my prior posts:

• NY Post: Columbia, NYU, Fordham Law Schools Inflate Employment Stats
• Placement Data Controversy Hits Elite Law Schools

New York Post, Student Moans: Schools Amend Grad Job Claims:

It’s Columbia Law School, LLP.

After inquiries by The Post last month found that the post-graduate employment numbers presented by New York law schools appear to be inflated, the prestigious law school has changed how it reports job figures.

On April 19, the school disclosed that it had funded a hefty 38 out of the 445 jobs that make up its near-perfect post-graduate employment rate. The number is up from just 9 in 2009 and 10 in 2010, and represents a growing trend among law schools struggling to keep employment percentages high amidst hiring cutbacks. …

The Post previously reported that NYU Law School funded 38 jobs for the class of 2010, while Fordham Law School funded 73.

LSAT Blog, Columbia Law School Employment Troubles:

It turns out that the Post stopped just short of the real prize:

How many Class of 2011 graduates initially given school-funded jobs were still in such jobs 9 months after graduation? After emailing the school yesterday with this query, I learned:

Four of the 38 fellows in the Class of 2011 are in permanent positions, however, all 38 were still in fellowships nine months after graduation when we reported to the ABA.

In other words, all 38 of those who received school-funded jobs upon graduation were still in those jobs 9 months later. None of them had found permanent work. Even now, almost a full year after graduation, only 4 of them have found permanent positions.

I'm left to infer that the other 34 still haven't found jobs and are still stuck with the school-funded ones. And this is Columbia, the Ivy League school ranked #4 by U.S. News.

For the Class of 2011, 443 out of the 456 graduates are in jobs with bar admission required or J.D. preferred. However, subtracting the 38 students in school-funded jobs 9 months after graduation drops the number to 405.

In other words, after excluding school-funded jobs, only 89% were in jobs with bar admission required or J.D. preferred 9 months after graduation.

Law School Transparency, NYU Plays 'Hide the Ball' With Employment Data:

New York University School of Law has decided to continue withholding valuable employment data from prospective students. … NYU has no plans to publish the additional information we have requested, even though it is of value to both the legal profession and law school applicants. The data NYU indicated it was “looking into” publishing 14 months after collection — the source of job by employer type — has not been added to NYU’s website despite more than another month passing. The immense intellectual, technological, and financial resources of NYU have proven unequal to the task of posting an 8×7 table.

JD Journal, Law School Debt Tough to Payback