Vault's Top 25 Law School Rankings Forum

[Archon D: terrorface]

Love the comments on the best schools. "OMG they're so entitled and arrogant, big lazy assholes who are out of touch with legal practice, that's why we keep hiring anyone in the top 75% there".

I guess you don't like it if they criticize their attitude?

[spinsta]

I mean, it's nice to see HYS take a humbling dive, but... I don't really believe it.

Yes, Stanford really took a humbling dive at a meager #1...

Whoops - forgot to leave off that S!

[spinsta]

On UVA: "Maybe it's the law school's emphasis on softball and beer, but the lack of work ethic shows in recent grads."

I totally got an email from a 2L at UVA who literally wrote "UVA certainly lives up to its 'play-softball-rather-than-go-to-class' reputation." I remembered laughing out loud when I read that - as if a t14 could ever survive with that attitude...

[Aqualibrium]

I think it's funny that they have a quote about UVA grads being "unnecessarily arrogant". I can't remember when I've met someone who was only as arrogant as necessary.

I think it is possible to be arrogant without being superfluous lol

[bigben]

I think it's funny that they have a quote about UVA grads being "unnecessarily arrogant". I can't remember when I've met someone who was only as arrogant as necessary.

Excellent point

[yagrish]

just my 2cents: (understanding that it's not representative) I talked to a couple of so-called "hiring professionals" and their responses are not at all similar to Vault's rankings. For example, one of these people said that UChicago grads are superior to most employees whereas NYU cannot even compare with CLS. At the same time, I've never heard anyone even mention Michigan.

[observationalist]

I think the list is extremely valuable

I kid. But, at least it attempts to focus on job prospects rather than reputation, which I like. It sounds like their sampling size is too small and may be giving greater weight to schools that place well regionally but less so elsewhere. Vanderbilt's reputation has been building slowly in areas outside the South, partially because we're seeing more alums make hiring partner in cities like LA, Phoenix and NY. As the network gets stronger we're going to continue seeing greater access to firms that used to view the school as regional, which I like. And as long as we're getting jobs around the country we don't need to be as concerned about rankings in general, regardless of who publishes them. Dean Rubin recently called the USNews rank "an irritiating but inevitable concern," which I think would be true about the Vault rankings if they were actually viewed as a concern (and I don't think they are right now). Blah.

Plus I think we're better at softball than UVA, although we won't know this year because the Entertainment & Sports Law Society failed to raise the funds to send a team to the tournament over in C-Ville. I'm pretty sure I went on the record last fall and challenged UVA, so at this point I'll retract my earlier challenge and just say good luck to everyone who's going next month. Have fun battling over which school's better at something that IMHO is far less important to career development than your karaoke skills. [shrugs shoulders, trolls off to a meeting followed by free kegs at the biz school and then some excellent Justin Townes Earle tonight at the Basement.]

[Aqualibrium]

just my 2cents: (understanding that it's not representative) I talked to a couple of so-called "hiring professionals" and their responses are not at all similar to Vault's rankings. For example, one of these people said that UChicago grads are superior to most employees whereas NYU cannot even compare with CLS. At the same time, I've never heard anyone even mention Michigan.

[redsox8105]

My girlfriend's dad is a partner at a major BigLaw firm and he's always looked down on Yale grads.

Salt, grain, etc.

Also, love the "Buzz" for BU: "Underrated", "Overrated". Thanks Vault, very helpful.

[galahad85]

UCLA: "The Fordham of the west coast"

[galahad85]

Oh, and how about this one...

Duke: "Graduates of this school are not prepared to practice law. There must be no practical training provided at all."

Wow.

[chadwick218]

Not sure that I really understand the methodology behind this ... For example, I have very high regard for Indiana's law school, but a T-14?

[motownsaint]

I think the rankings are useful, but only in so much as a survey is useful. It says right at the top that it was just a survey of 400 hiring partners.

If all the Vault firms hiring partners all posted on a web forum called "Top Law Firms" and posted a thread-poll, how much would you get out of that? It's informative and may give you something to think about, but it's also possibly misleading.

[Tolmanator]

Is there any reason why I cannot find Vault's top 25 law school rankings list? I have looked many places for 20 minutes and no link seems to work, even their very own. Suggestions? Does anyone have a copy of the list?

[holydonkey]

step 1: put 'vault top 25 law schools' in yahoo
step 2: press submit
step 3: click on first link

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... =1&t=97463

1. Stanford University Law School
2. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor Law School
3. New York University School of Law
4. University of Virginia School of Law
5. University of Chicago Law School
6. Harvard Law School
7. Columbia Law School
8. University of California, Berkeley - Boalt Hall School of Law
9. Northwestern University School of Law
10. Yale Law School
11. Vanderbilt University Law School
12. Duke University Law School
13. University of Pennsylvania Law School
14. Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington
15. Cornell University Law School
16. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities Law School
17. Georgetown University Law Center
18. University of California, Los Angeles School of Law
19. University of Iowa College of Law
20. George Washington University Law School
21. Boston University School of Law
22. University of Texas at Austin School of Law
23. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill School of Law
24. Emory University School of Law
25. University of Wisconsin Law School

National Rankings Formula

To determine the national rankings, Vault calculated a score for each school based on the following formula:

* 50% of the score is based on the number of votes a law school received from recruiters in its own region, when compared to the votes received by other law schools in the region.
* 50% of the score is based on the number of votes a law school received from recruiters outside its region, when compared to the votes received by law schools nationally.

[CG614]

So, OP's options were: a) start new thread about a previously discussed topic and get yelled at about it, or b) post in a dead thread and get yelled at about it. Only on TLS, hahaha.

[Tolmanator]

ha, thanks, holydonkey. You think I will still be accepted to Harvard even though I do not know how to work a search engine?

Seriously though, I feel dumb. Apparently, "Vault law school rankings" is not advisable to search under.

[holydonkey]

ha, thanks, holydonkey. You think I will still be accepted to Harvard even though I do not know how to work a search engine?

Seriously though, I feel dumb. Apparently, "Vault law school rankings" is not advisable to search under.

Sure, after all, it's only #6.