That's incredible. Whenever I read or hear about Chicago's placement stats I am always surprised at how many posters on here consider them "below" CLS and NYU. Honestly at worst they are on the same level as NYU--based on the employment stats and clerkship info they really are only matched by CLS and surpassed by HYS.

+1000

Wrong. Even if Chicago had the same medians as Yale--which is obviously highly unlikely--they would remain behind Columbia in the rankings, with a statistically insignificant advantage over NYU (they would probably be tied at fifth for USNWR) based on the USNWR methodology.

On the other hand, if they increased their expenditures to be more in line with Stanford, they would be tied with Columbia. If they increased their expenditures to equal that of Yale, they would move into the 4th spot, ahead of Columbia, but still very slightly behind Stanford and Harvard.

Ok. I'll take your word re:expenditures. so will chicago be reporting their expenditures accurately this year? if so will that make a difference?

other posters have said that increasing their expenditures to sls or yls levels wouldn't even get them past nyu.

Slightly off-topic but not completely but since it appears a few of you guys know a lot about the ranking system - you have any links that explain it in depth? Does that even exist?

Thanks. Probably one of those instances where I'm going to end up really embarrassed about not being able to find it myself.

I almost hit you with a "Let me Google that for you."

It's literally right there on the rankings page, "Methodologies"

Haha. And boy would I have deserved it. I swear I've looked for it before but I'm either a) remembering wrong b) blind or c) and idiot.

I took a look at that too and it seems like expenditures are so low that chicago would need to be drastically underreporting to have it make any difference.
for me it seems that their admissions rate is a huge problem for them (and nyu too, especially nyu)

This is primarily why I chose not to go to UofC. When I started my application cycle it was my first choice, but after visiting and talking with people I changed my mind.
It is the most status-obsessed place on the globe. It seems like all that matters is who you're better than, so it doesn't surprise me to hear this.

I get a similiar vibe from NYU. It seems like a lot of their students are obsessed with proving how they are just as good as Columbia and better than Chicago. Many of them seem to have a chip on their shoulder when trying to prove that they are as good as Columbia and they get downright vicious when someone hints that they might not be on Columbia's level. It's one of the most US News rankings obsessed places around.

I think that's only true on this board. IRL we drink with the CLS kids frequently. They're uptight, but their parties are always in the BEST venues.

OH awesome.

If by awesome you mean blindingly hard to read, then yes.

Yeah that too.

+1

Agree with all the people who pointed out the flaws in your plan. I would add that such a move would majorly piss off 2Ls, 3Ls, recent alumni, and future prospective students. Why should the class of 2013 win the lottery like this when EVERYONE else had to pay? I would also draw the conclusion that Chicago had money lying around that they could have given to ME in the form of a partial scholarship but chose not to. I would be angry.

Furthermore, who would want to instigate this race to the bottom? NYU and Columbia are capable of doing the same thing, but I don't think anyone in the CCN pack would want to be dealing with the other two awarding outrageous amounts of scholarship money each year. To some extent schools collude precisely so that none of them have to do this.

because the class of 2013 would be have way better numbers than previous classes because it would be poaching from hls and the top students at cls.

but yea, they would never ever do it for the later reason. though, donors can stipulate how their money is spent. so someone with 8 million to donate should just say, "hey offer 150k + housing and bears season tickets and a golf club membership to 100 students admitted to hys for one year." if i had a billion dollars i'd do it. fun little experiment.

I think that Beast is saying that you're sort of contradicting your argument. You claim that the rankings are self-perpetuating, but go on to talk about how Chicago could then change their ranking. Beast is saying that any school, including Columbia or NYU, could do that. Even if Chicago got into the #4 spot (logically impossible, as that z-score link will show), Columbia or NYU could devote their money the next year to getting the students that would rather go to Chicago because of its higher rank.

Possibly, but they are still students that go to MY school and they wouldn't have had that same opportunity had it not been a freakish year. Also, the fact that they had 3 points more on the LSAT than me would do little to ease my rage when I looked at my loan payments each month. It would be a very bad move vis a vis alumni relations.

Okay, I get your point but this isn't really helping. The idea is to determine the best way for Chicago to game the rankings and then send the school a rough draft of our plans.



None of that. Positive thinking only.