Law School Transparency Question Forum

[t-14orbust]

Why is it that HYS have employment scores below CCN + others? Aren't HYS supposed to be the better option?

[timbs4339]

The LST guys might be in here to give a better answer, but here is my take:

The employment score is the % of full-time, long-term in jobs that require a JD- essentially full-time lawyer jobs. HYS are more likely to send people into government, policy, academic, or business jobs that aren't "lawyer" jobs, but a similarly prestigious or lucrative positions.

The best metric would be something like "% who could get a legal job" or "% who could get a biglaw/PSLF qualifying job if they tried". At those schools, the number would be significantly higher than the actual percentage who get those jobs. For example, just check out the numbers getting federal clerkships- much higher at YHS than other comparable schools.

[Bronte]

The argument is that HYS students self-select into jobs that aren't well reflected by the stats. It either draws into question the stats or draws into question the primacy of HYS. Most people think it's the former, although a lot of posters are unwilling to concede that the same logic might apply to lower ranked T14s.

[t-14orbust]

The argument is that HYS students self-select into jobs that aren't well reflected by the stats. It either draws into question the stats or draws into question the primacy of HYS. Most people think it's the former, although a lot of posters are unwilling to concede that the same logic might apply to lower ranked T14s.

I never even thought about it that way, I guess it's just really easy to get caught up in the HYS preftige. HYS is still my goal though. Thanks for the responses, you both really clarified things. I suppose I should have looked more into where these numbers were coming from.

[you'rethemannowdawg]

The LST guys might be in here to give a better answer, but here is my take:

The employment score is the % of full-time, long-term in jobs that require a JD- essentially full-time lawyer jobs. HYS are more likely to send people into government, policy, academic, or business jobs that aren't "lawyer" jobs, but a similarly prestigious or lucrative positions.

The best metric would be something like "% who could get a legal job" or "% who could get a biglaw/PSLF qualifying job if they tried". At those schools, the number would be significantly higher than the actual percentage who get those jobs. For example, just check out the numbers getting federal clerkships- much higher at YHS than other comparable schools.

+1

For an example, OP, a lot of federal agencies and committees on Capitol Hill have 9-12 month fellowships reserved for HYS students to do things like draft questions for committee hearings and review language in bills. They are excellent jobs to get, but they don't show up in LST.

[jenesaislaw]

All great posts so far. I agree with the limits of the data, as well as the notion that discovering HYS's primacy is difficult and (therefore) should be questioned. The onus is on these schools to prove the value not captured by the employment data. Largely they can rely on their prestige to fill in the gaps, but that's not really enough for somebody seeking data-driven comparisons.

Overall, LST and the data we share and sort are just a start. These data are much better for showing when something isn't a good bet.