Brooklyn Law School employment rates 2010 v. 2011 Forum

[pwnyc127]

Someone help me out here. Why is has Brooklyn Law School's employment rate fallen so drastically between 2010 and 2011, yet they still maintain their position in most if not all ranking systems?

Check the ABA employment reports for 2010 and compare them to 2011:
http://employmentsummary.abaquestionnaire.org/

U.S News continues to rank Brooklyn at #65 in the 2013 edition, and even Law School Transparency has given it better score report scores than comparable schools with higher employment rates in 2011 (such as St. John's). Is Brooklyn Law School on a steady decline or are these changes cyclical?

[Crowing]

Because USNWR is essentially a proxy for LSAT/GPA medians and reputation scores and is an objectively terrible metric for outcomes.

[thand42292]

I believe numbers for 2010 include temporary jobs.

[cahwc12]

Think of it this way:

2010 employment data was accurate but imprecise. The 2011 data was accurate and more precise. Accuracy without precision isn't very useful. In 2010, a forklift driver and a general counsel lawyer both counted as as "employed, full-time - business & industry". In 2011, those two jobs became separate categories, "employed, full-time" vs "employed, full-time, bar passage required."

The data for BLS may have been slightly worse in 2011 than 2010, but the large disparity is more an artifact of improvements in data gathering. The 2011 data still isn't very revealing, but it's good enough to give most people a ballpark estimate. The 2012 numbers when they come out next month won't be any more insightful than the 2011 data (at least I've heard), but the 2013 numbers (March 2014) should have more precise breakdowns.

[pwnyc127]

Very informative answer. Thank you!