So what makes Alabama a T30 law school? Forum

[Aqualibrium]

I mean is it really better than UGA, Tulane, SMU? Am I to believe that it is as good a school as UNC?

[pjarron]

Gaming the US news rankings, a good/decent faculty and little competition within their state.

[jcl2]

Free music downloads, I think.

[reasonable_man]

There are about 29 Law schools that are better and something like 170 that are worse.

[toolshed]

Two mascots.

[rondemarino]

Gaming the US news rankings, a good/decent faculty and little competition within their state.

[john titor]

US News & World Report makes Alabama a T30 law school

[cbreault]

US News and World Report, if I'm not mistaken.

No, Alabama is not better than UGA or UNC, just look at their employment statistics and Federal judicial clerkship placement.

[Helmholtz]

Alabama is one of the most overrated schools in the entire USNWR rankings. It should be somewhere in the mid '40s. It's in the same league as schools like UGA, Tulane, Florida, Colorado, and BYU.

[john titor]

honestly, schools like uga, unc. bama, tulane, colorado, florida, etc. are all comparable. no one I have ever run into who works in law knows/cares about rankings year to year. the only reason why my firm would ever prefer a UNC grad to a bama, UGA, or colorado grad is the fact that the firm is in NC.

[98234872348]

I mean is it really better than UGA, Tulane, SMU? Am I to believe that it is as good a school as UNC?

All the schools you have listed are regional schools with decent placement in their respective regions...

Alabama will not give you better in placement in Georgia than UGA, nor in Texas than SMU. I am not going to comment on Tulane because the Tulane trolls will come in and argue that Tulane has national placement...

[cbreault]

Alabama refuses to even post their employment statistics. Maybe someone can find them. I can't.

Here is UGA's:

--LinkRemoved--

For comparison, here is Emory's:

http://www.law.emory.edu/fileadmin/care ... f_2008.pdf

Here is UNC's:

http://www.law.unc.edu/careerservices/default.aspx

Notice that UGA's placed is on par or better than Emory's. Out of UGA's class 33 people secured judicial clerkships, 20 of these were Federal clerkships, which meant that 9.85% of the class landed a Federal clerkship. Compare that to Emory's Federal clerkship placement of around 6%. UGA's average starting private practice salaries stood at $130,000.

From 2000-2009 UGA ranks in the T-10 for US Supreme Court clerk placement.

If Alabama's employment stats were something to brag about, they would certainly post them.

[ace0260]

Emory also sent about 20% more people into private practice and the avg salary is only 5k lower. Regardless UGA is a great school and if you are in-state there is really no reason to go to Emory.

[cbreault]

Emory also sent about 20% more people into private practice and the avg salary is only 5k lower. Regardless UGA is a great school and if you are in-state there is really no reason to go to Emory.

They didn't send about 20% more into private practice, since the 71.77% who went into private practice was not a percentage of the whole class, but only a percentage of the class who were employed. Around 12% of the Emory class was UNEMPLOYED, and so 71.77% of the 88.85% who actually got jobs is 63.78% of the entire Emory class. For UGA: 57.5 of the 98.1% who were employed is 56.4% taking private practice jobs. A difference of 7%, not 20.

And don't forget that 7% of the UGA class took jobs in business averaging $138,000.

And also, UGA placed 4% more students in Federal judicial clerkships, and these students could have easily landed market paying biglaw jobs.

[rondemarino]

Emory also sent about 20% more people into private practice and the avg salary is only 5k lower. Regardless UGA is a great school and if you are in-state there is really no reason to go to Emory.

They didn't send about 20% more into private practice, since the 71.77% who went into private practice was not a percentage of the whole class, but only a percentage of the class who were employed. Around 12% of the Emory class was UNEMPLOYED, and so 71.77% of the 88.85% who actually got jobs is 63.78% of the entire Emory class. For UGA: 57.5 of the 98.1% who were employed is 56.4% taking private practice jobs. A difference of 7%, not 20.

And don't forget that 7% of the UGA class took jobs in business averaging $138,000.

And also, UGA placed 4% more students in Federal judicial clerkships, and these students could have easily landed market paying biglaw jobs.

That sounds highly dubious. One guy get a gig paying a $1M that shifted the average up, or something? I'm always suspicious of averages. Nothing against UGA.

[Helmholtz]

Emory also sent about 20% more people into private practice and the avg salary is only 5k lower. Regardless UGA is a great school and if you are in-state there is really no reason to go to Emory.

They didn't send about 20% more into private practice, since the 71.77% who went into private practice was not a percentage of the whole class, but only a percentage of the class who were employed. Around 12% of the Emory class was UNEMPLOYED, and so 71.77% of the 88.85% who actually got jobs is 63.78% of the entire Emory class. For UGA: 57.5 of the 98.1% who were employed is 56.4% taking private practice jobs. A difference of 7%, not 20.

And don't forget that 7% of the UGA class took jobs in business averaging $138,000.

And also, UGA placed 4% more students in Federal judicial clerkships, and these students could have easily landed market paying biglaw jobs.

That sounds highly dubious. One guy get a gig paying a $1M that shifted the average up, or something? I'm always suspicious of averages. Nothing against UGA.

The range given was $55,000 - $250,000.

[Helmholtz]

The one thing that Emory does have a clear leg up on UGA is farther reach (especially when it comes to NYC). Federal clerkships are around the same, Emory gets a little better placement into biglaw, etc. but for the median student at each school, there really isn't going to be that big of a difference. The starkest difference will probably be when comparing the top quarters of each class.

[James Bond]

Alabama is one of the most overrated schools in the entire USNWR rankings. It should be somewhere in the mid '40s. It's in the same league as schools like UGA, Tulane, Florida, Colorado, and BYU.

All of which (except maybe BYU) I'd go to over Alabama

[Helmholtz]

Alabama is one of the most overrated schools in the entire USNWR rankings. It should be somewhere in the mid '40s. It's in the same league as schools like UGA, Tulane, Florida, Colorado, and BYU.

All of which (except maybe BYU) I'd go to over Alabama

As long as you don't anything totally absurd like drink a diet coke or a glass of iced tea or wear shorts that don't extend to the knee, you'd fit in fine at BYU, biv0ns.

[ace0260]

Emory also sent about 20% more people into private practice and the avg salary is only 5k lower. Regardless UGA is a great school and if you are in-state there is really no reason to go to Emory.

They didn't send about 20% more into private practice, since the 71.77% who went into private practice was not a percentage of the whole class, but only a percentage of the class who were employed. Around 12% of the Emory class was UNEMPLOYED, and so 71.77% of the 88.85% who actually got jobs is 63.78% of the entire Emory class. For UGA: 57.5 of the 98.1% who were employed is 56.4% taking private practice jobs. A difference of 7%, not 20.

And don't forget that 7% of the UGA class took jobs in business averaging $138,000.

And also, UGA placed 4% more students in Federal judicial clerkships, and these students could have easily landed market paying biglaw jobs.

UGA's employment number is not 98%, it is 95% which makes the private practice gap about 10%. And the 7% in business making 138k is bullshit. An inordinately high salary is bloating that figure.

[atlantalaw]

i was surprised when i saw that uga fell and bama went up in the rankings this year. last year they were tied at #32, if i'm not mistaken.

[General Tso]

Who cares about Bama? It's really no different than any other SEC law school. Except for the fact that UGA and Florida grads actually have desirable cities in their respective regions.

Seriously...if you go to Bama just b/c of its USNWR rank, you are a fool. If you aren't top of the class you will be making 55-60k in such exotic locales as Birmingham or Mobile.

[funkblaster]

Emory also sent about 20% more people into private practice and the avg salary is only 5k lower. Regardless UGA is a great school and if you are in-state there is really no reason to go to Emory.

They didn't send about 20% more into private practice, since the 71.77% who went into private practice was not a percentage of the whole class, but only a percentage of the class who were employed. Around 12% of the Emory class was UNEMPLOYED, and so 71.77% of the 88.85% who actually got jobs is 63.78% of the entire Emory class. For UGA: 57.5 of the 98.1% who were employed is 56.4% taking private practice jobs. A difference of 7%, not 20.

And don't forget that 7% of the UGA class took jobs in business averaging $138,000.

And also, UGA placed 4% more students in Federal judicial clerkships, and these students could have easily landed market paying biglaw jobs.

I don't think all of these statistics are accurate. Where did you find the Federal clerkships for UGA? I didn't see it in the link. Also, I know of two UGA students in that class that were unemployed, and I really don't know many people from there. They list one. Must be a mistake somewhere.

[theendoftheline]

Who cares about Bama? It's really no different than any other SEC law school. Except for the fact that UGA and Florida grads actually have desirable cities in their respective regions.

Seriously...if you go to Bama just b/c of its USNWR rank, you are a fool. If you aren't top of the class you will be making 55-60k in such exotic locales as Birmingham or Mobile.

http://birmingham.bizjournals.com/birmi ... tory5.html

It could be worse

[James Bond]

Alabama is one of the most overrated schools in the entire USNWR rankings. It should be somewhere in the mid '40s. It's in the same league as schools like UGA, Tulane, Florida, Colorado, and BYU.

All of which (except maybe BYU) I'd go to over Alabama

As long as you don't anything totally absurd like drink a diet coke or a glass of iced tea or wear shorts that don't extend to the knee, you'd fit in fine at BYU, biv0ns.

I hope you're kidding. I knew it was a bit weird there, but seriously?