Top Law Schools

I find this odd considering it's job placement statistics and overall perception as a top law school. Comments?

Its peer rating is .1 lower than similarly ranked schools (4.1 vs 4.2 at Duke, Cornell, and Gtown), while its ranking with lawyers and judges is the same as its peers (4.3). The lower peer rating is more than likely be attributed to Northwestern's focus on work experience and professionalism rather than undergraduate grades. The different admissions criteria that Northwestern uses cause them to be somewhat of a black sheep amongst law school administrators.

bdubs wrote:Its peer rating is .1 lower than similarly ranked schools (4.1 vs 4.2 at Duke, Cornell, and Gtown), while its ranking with lawyers and judges is the same as its peers (4.3). The lower peer rating is more than likely be attributed to Northwestern's focus on work experience and professionalism rather than undergraduate grades. The different admissions criteria that Northwestern uses cause them to be somewhat of a black sheep amongst law school administrators.

Then why does it say in their profile this is the reason for their lower ranking?

Nola wrote:Then why does it say in their profile this is the reason for their lower ranking?

Lower than what? It is ranked where it is because USNWR use a number of criteria to determine ranking, Northwestern is pretty close to all of its peers across those metrics.

I don't know what profile you are referring to.

bdubs wrote:

Nola wrote:Then why does it say in their profile this is the reason for their lower ranking?

Lower than what? It is ranked where it is because USNWR use a number of criteria to determine ranking, Northwestern is pretty close to all of its peers across those metrics.

I don't know what profile you are referring to.

bdubs wrote:

Nola wrote:Then why does it say in their profile this is the reason for their lower ranking?

Lower than what? It is ranked where it is because USNWR use a number of criteria to determine ranking, Northwestern is pretty close to all of its peers across those metrics.

I don't know what profile you are referring to.

If you read the Northwestern profile on TLS, you'll see that it implies a lower ranking in these categories. In the admissions section.

Nola wrote:If you read the Northwestern profile on TLS, you'll see that it implies a lower ranking in these categories. In the admissions section.

That information seems to be somewhat outdated. Duke, Georgetown and Cornell are all very closely matched to Northwestern in peer and professional ratings. There is a marked increase in reputation scores when you get to MVP, which accounts for Michigan's higher ranking despite lower GPA/LSAT #s.

Often peer assessments are in line with the production of academics & educational administrators.

CanadianWolf wrote:Often peer assessments are in line with the production of academics & educational administrators.

Northwestern produces a similar number of academics per capita to Duke or Virginia, but has a lower peer assessment than both.

http://www.leiterrankings.com/jobs/2009 ... hing.shtml

This also seems to come through in the more recent ABA school data.

It's one factor that often, but not always, comes into play. The second chart that you referenced shows that Virginia Law has about 45% more graduates teaching law than does Northwestern. Duke has fewer.

P.S. The "per capita" ranking is meaningless in this context; you need to view the second chart which shows actual numbers teaching law.

CanadianWolf wrote:It's one factor that often, but not always, comes into play. The second chart that you referenced shows that Virginia Law has about 45% more graduates teaching law than does Northwestern. Duke has fewer.

P.S. The "per capita" ranking is meaningless in this context; you need to view the second chart which shows actual numbers teaching law.

I think per capita academics need some weight. I don't think that Michigan has a better reputation than Stanford amongst its peers just because it has more alumni currently teaching than Stanford does.