chadstew55 wrote:Snooker wrote:chadstew55 wrote:txag_09 wrote:Vandy this year, HLS next! Ok, I'm probably hoping for too much.
On another note, Baylor got smacked down HARD: -10 rank (65 from 55).
Yeah, that is crazy! U of H overtook them too. This is going to be big news for UH.
I don't think the Houston firms will really notice, though. Baylor / UH are huge brands in Houston, I doubt that a sudden big flux in law school rankings will impact their grads' marketability. UH grads all know that they have a "really good law school" over there, and baylor is regarded as a "great school for Texas". I don't think the hiring partners take fluctuations seriously, nor do I think people they're marketing services to follow rankings that closely, either.
haha, I wasn't suggesting that it would make some substantive change in the legal market, but that UH administration would be pretty excited. They are pretty obsessed with this if I remember correctly. Didn't they fire a dean after they fell in the rankings one time?
Point taken!
Rankings obsession seems to be pretty common at law schools across the country. I think the pressure comes from the students - the administrations in general are staffed by responsible people who know that rankings are mostly a big game, but with all the pressure from students to play the rankings game, they're more or less trapped. It's gotten to the bizarre point where law school deans meet with USNews to discuss rankings issues, and law reviews publish suggestions on how to revise the rankings.
A way out of this mess, in my opinion, would be for the ABA to require that law schools publish comprehensive and accurate salary data from graduates. If NALP can say the median starting salary is 60k, then Fordham can knock 100k off their reported median starting salary of $160,000. Once applicants know exactly know a school fares in the market, they'll order their choices accordingly, and this can be a factor in rankings.
This should be in the ABA's interests, too. Once people realize lawyers are not guaranteed six figure salaries right out the gates, fewer will be willing to put down 150k on law school, and there will be fewer lawyers.