| |
|
« TLS Profiles - TLS Programs - TLS Stats - Rankings University Of Miami School Of Law
Admissions & Tuition Miami does not set especially high admissions standards for its applicants; in fact, the standards can hardly be called selective at all. Roughly 52% (2,190 out of 4,240) of applicants were granted admission in 2008. For those who were admitted, the 25th to 75th percentile GPA range was 3.17–3.68 and the range for the LSAT was 155-160—with medians of 3.41 and 157, respectively. The relaxed standards of Miami’s admissions department (and its astonishingly high acceptance rate) are not a result of the numbers the school bases its admissions decisions on. After all, many schools have similar ranges for GPA and LSAT scores but don’t admit nearly as many students. Rather, it is that Miami doesn’t seem to look very far beyond the numbers. That is to say, soft factors are not as important as they are at schools like Hawaii, which has similar ranges but only accepts 18% of students. At $38,012, tuition at Miami is neither terribly high nor especially low. Considering also room and board (~$13,000) and miscellaneous fees (~$9,000 including books), the annual cost of attendance at Miami is approximately $60,000. Multiplied by three years and the total cost becomes almost $180,000. This is a hefty price-tag; but Miami is pretty good about awarding financial aid (to 32% of its students). Grants in 2007 ranged from $15,300 to $23,000, and the median was a strong $20,000. Employment
For those who did find work, private-practice is without contest the most popular choice. A whopping 69% of employed Miami graduates chose private practice last year. Salary is surely the motivating factor: Miami grads working in the private sector enjoyed a starting salary range of $75,000-$130,000, with a median of $100,000 (USNews, 41% reporting). This is quite good for a school of Miami’s caliber. As always, the median starting salary for those working in public service was lower: ~$41,500. Most Miami graduates (more than 60%) stay in Florida after graduation. Of those who did leave Florida, more stayed in the South than went to any other region. This is consistent with the trends of schools ranked similarly to Miami, all of them being “regional” law schools (meaning that the best employment prospects are in-state or at best in-region). Miami grads are not rigidly confined to the South however, as is evidenced by the 8% of graduates who found work above the Mason Dixon Line and the 2% who made it all the way out to the Pacific States (USNews). Academics Academically, Miami Law is not a particularly distinguished academic institution. Ranking 71st in the country, few would expect it to be. This does not mean, however, that the school does not have its strong points. Miami’s tax law program, for instance, is fantastic—and was tied for the #6 spot (above Michigan and Stanford) on USNews’ ranking of the country’s best programs in tax law. Given Florida’s geopolitical status, students also have the opportunity to get plenty of hands on experience in immigration law as well. Still, the overall academic experience at Miami is far from stellar. The student-faculty ratio is poor, with 16.6 students to every professor, and there are complaints about the quality of teachers and the out-dated status of many programs at the school. It seems that students have to go beyond what is expected of them in order to make the most of their academic experience at Miami. For an investment of three year’s time and $180,000, that simply should not be the case. Quality of Life The sense of community boasted by students at many U.S. law schools does not seem to be present at Miami Law, where grading is based on a curve. This, combined with weak job prospects faced by graduates, make the environment at Miami quite competitive, providing an added level of stress most law students could do without. Not all is grim, however. Going to school in Miami certainly has its perks, including an always-sunny campus, a plethora of palm-trees, and beaches galore. Though law students are known for being confined to their casebooks, those who can escape from the library take advantage of Miami Law’s warm-weather location and enjoy the Sunshine State for all that it is worth. Quick Reference U.S. News Ranking: 82 |
Stanford Law School Yale Law School Harvard Law School Virginia Law School Pepperdine Law School Northwestern Law School Cornell Law School Michigan Law School Golden Gate Law School Duke Law School Columbia Law School Temple Law School Loyola Law School UCLA Law School Villanova Law School New York University Law School UC Hastings Law School Santa Clara Law School UPenn Law School Berkeley Boalt Hall University of Chicago Law School UC Davis Law School Fordham Law School George Washington Law School Georgetown University Law Center New York Law School UNC Chapel Hill Law School Boston College Law School Boston University School of Law Emory University Law School The University of Iowa College of Law University of Minnesota Law School The University of Texas School of Law The University of Southern California School of Law (Gould) Vanderbilt University Law School Washington University in St. Louis School of Law Wisconsin Law School The University of Alabama School of Law George Mason University School of Law The University of Colorado School of Law Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington University of Notre Dame Law School The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law The University of Illinois College of Law The University of Washington School of Law William & Mary School of Law Washington and Lee University School of Law The Arizona State University College of Law The Baylor University School of Law The Case Western Reserve University School of Law The University of Georgia School of Law The Brigham Young University Law School The Southern Methodist University School of Law Tulane University Law School The University of Connecticut School of Law The University of Florida College of Law Wake Forest University School of Law Vermont Law School The University of Utah College of Law Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University The University of Tennessee College of Law The University of Cincinnati College of Law The University of Pittsburgh School of Law University of Maryland School of Law The University of Kentucky College of Law The University of Houston College of Law The Florida State University College of Law Chicago-Kent College of Law (Illinois Institute of Technology) Brooklyn Law School University of Arizona College of Law American University College of Law University of San Diego School of Law Northeastern University School of Law University Of Miami School Of Law The University of Richmond School of Law Oregon School Of Law Lewis & Clark School of Law Rutgers Law - Camden South Carolina Law Seattle University School of Law PSU School of Law Canada: University of Toronto Faculty of Law DePaul University College of Law Rutgers-Newark School of Law Hofstra Law School Seton Hall Law School Missouri - Columbia Law School Indiana University Indianapolis Law Buffalo Law School UNLV Law School St. John's School of Law The University of Denver Law School University of Louisville School of Law The University of Oklahoma College of Law Georgia State University College of Law Louisiana State University, Paul M. Hebert Law Center Loyola University Chicago School of Law Marquette University Law School University of Kansas School of Law Canada: University of Alberta Faculty of Law St. Louis University School of Law University of New Mexico School of Law Catholic University's Columbus School of Law The University of Maine School of Law Gonzaga University School of Law The University of Arkansas School of Law University of San Francisco School of Law Canada: Dalhousie Law School Canada: McGill University Faculty of Law Canada: University of Ottawa Faculty of Law Canada: Osgoode Hall Law School (York University) Canada: UBC Faculty of Law IE Law School- Northwestern Law Executive LLM Program IE Law School- Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Practice |
Palm trees and casebooks? It seems an odd mix; but it is exactly the mix that students at the University Of Miami School Of Law enjoy. Prospective students are encouraged to look beyond the sunny skies, however, when evaluating Miami Law, where competition is high, and employment prospects are discouragingly weak.
Miami graduates passed the bar at a rate of 86.4%, comfortably exceeding the state-wide passage rate of 77.6%. Relatively high bar passage rates, however, do not necessarily translate into strong career prospects; and this is best evidenced by the school's mediocre point-of-graduation employment percentage of 76.7%. This means that 23.3% of graduates surveyed by USNews were unemployed at the time of graduation. Nine months later, the figure rises to 92.6%. Undoubtedly, this is a figure prospective students should keep in mind.