How do you compare schools? Forum

[soda mayor]

What should I look for when comparing schools? Obviously, I want to look at salary and employment stats but where are these numbers published? Everyone on this site seems to throw statistics around but where are they getting it from? (ex- 1/3 of fordham places in biglaw, says who?)

Also aside from looking at different programs what else should I be looking at?

[dakatz]

Someone posted this and it looked pretty legit.

http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/20080414 ... trends.pdf

Just remember, this was printed in 2008 and shows figures for people graduating in 2005. The reality now is MUCH different from 2005. So the amount of red on any given bar will most certainly be smaller than it was in 2005.

[trey]

Bump interested as well

[najumobi]

What should I look for when comparing schools? Obviously, I want to look at salary and employment stats but where are these numbers published? Everyone on this site seems to throw statistics around but where are they getting it from? (ex- 1/3 of fordham places in biglaw, says who?)

Also aside from looking at different programs what else should I be looking at?

i use usnews for the most part. i think it's fairly reliable. you have to learn how to interpret the data that they report (i.e. taking a note of the percentage of graduates reporting their salary) and discriminate useful data (percentage of students with jobs at graduation) from useless data (bar passage percentage).

i also use lsac to see which states a school's graduates are seeking bar admission for.
oh, also nlj and law clerk addict.