Top Law Schools

Why is GULC's median higher than Cornell's? Shouldn't it be the other way round, since Cornell is higher ranked?
Does this imply that it's easier to find a job at GULC, so students with higher scores are willing to go there despite its lower rank?

people like DC better than Ithaca

who'da thunk it

No. GULC's median LSAT is also higher than Berkeley and Michigan, it doesn't really mean anything.

Also, in recent years, GULC's median gpa was much lower (though I dont think it was the case this year). Medians arent everything. Reputation is 40% of the ranking.

I don't know how much of this is from Georgetown being defensive, but they have a pretty low spending/student ratio, which is an important metric in the rankings, apparently.

There are plenty of other factors that go into the rankings formula. Just because the lsat
medians are a little different doesn't mean that a school can't outpace it's peers in other ways.

Nobody wrote:I don't know how much of this is from Georgetown being defensive, but they have a pretty low spending/student ratio, which is an important metric in the rankings, apparently.

What does this mean, though? That they pocket more and more of the tuition money? lol

law4vus wrote:

Nobody wrote:I don't know how much of this is from Georgetown being defensive, but they have a pretty low spending/student ratio, which is an important metric in the rankings, apparently.

What does this mean, though? That they pocket more and more of the tuition money? lol

It means that the rankings measure wealth.

law4vus wrote:

Nobody wrote:I don't know how much of this is from Georgetown being defensive, but they have a pretty low spending/student ratio, which is an important metric in the rankings, apparently.

What does this mean, though? That they pocket more and more of the tuition money? lol

On some level I'm sure its reflective of the quality of an institution, but because its also part of the reason law school tuition has gone up so much lately; schools now also have an incentive to spend tons of money on they don't really need.

That is:

1) demand for JDs (by students, not employers) is ridiculously inelastic with respect to price.

2) school X realizes this and increases tuition from $45k/year to $50k/year, and uses the money to buy new expensive new furniture, facilities, amenities etc even when what they had was fine.

3) school X reports per student spending to the US News as increased, school's ranking goes up!!

4) MOAR demand (from prospective students) for JDs from school X now!!

5) omg feedback loop!!

see Stanford being above CC

Cooley's medians are above UIUC's new ones so what does that tell you?

Nobody wrote:I don't know how much of this is from Georgetown being defensive, but they have a pretty low spending/student ratio, which is an important metric in the rankings, apparently.

They also have a massive student body, which drives this down.

romothesavior wrote:

Nobody wrote:I don't know how much of this is from Georgetown being defensive, but they have a pretty low spending/student ratio, which is an important metric in the rankings, apparently.

They also have a massive student body, which drives this down.

It drives down the need to spend money on students, but not the desire to. Theoretically GULC could devote more spending per student because it spreads more fixed costs that aren't eligible for inclusion over a large number of students.

In practice it just means that the larger university receives a bigger subsidy from law student tuition, to the detriment of the law school. It's one of the valid reasons to include this metric in the rankings.

JamMasterJ wrote:see Stanford being above CC

Indeed. Also, Cornell's endowment is a hell of a lot larger than Georgetown's (5x).