Which schools are moving up/down in the rankings? Forum

[Aeon]

Rankings are a bit like the stock market: you can't really tell if you're on an upward or downward trend until after the fact. The 1987 US News rankings aside, the top schools have mostly stayed put or moved around within a fairly limited range.

[Kimikho]

SYH you heard it here first

NY to 190, too

[mindthegap]

http://employmentsummary.abaquestionnaire.org/

http://www.abarequireddisclosures.org/

thank me later

Thank you.

[Attax]

SYH you heard it here first

NY to 190, too

[romothesavior]

It's kind of bizarre to see people still putting stock in the rankings in 2015.

[BNA]

http://employmentsummary.abaquestionnaire.org/

http://www.abarequireddisclosures.org/

thank me later

When are employment stats updated? 9 months out, right, so Feb-Mar?

[Mack.Hambleton]

This post reminds me of all the annoying kids obssessed with USNWR rankings in high school

[qwertyTLS]

i thought schools really care about rankings? and that's why they place so much emphasis on LSAT and GPA. what am i missing?

what i'm gathering is that schools care about rankings - but applicants shouldn't (rather, applicants should be more concerned about COA, employment outcomes, personal goals, etc)

[LurkerShirker]

To answer OP's question, the rankings are about two years removed from the employment outcomes. For the rankings this year, the schools that will make a move will probably be those that had a change in employment outcomes from the class of 2012 (which counted in last year's rankings) to the class of 2013. Wake Forest, for example, will probably move down in the rankings this year, because it followed a strong class of 2012 performance with a weak class of 2013 performance.

[Tiago Splitter]

When are employment stats updated? 9 months out, right, so Feb-Mar?

Pretty sure they changed it to ten months out and the new system starts this year. So ABA data should be out by 3/15 and then up on the internet hopefully soon after.

i thought schools really care about rankings? and that's why they place so much emphasis on LSAT and GPA. what am i missing?

what i'm gathering is that schools care about rankings - but applicants shouldn't (rather, applicants should be more concerned about COA, employment outcomes, personal goals, etc)

It's actually important for schools to care about rankings so that they keep class sizes low and give out large scholarships to people with good numbers. But shifts in rankings really don't change where a prospective student should attend. USNWR still doesn't really factor employment into its ranking in any meaningful way so it's not as if a prospective could even use a ranking change as some kind of proxy for better or worse outcomes.