You are missing the 40% of the ranking that is based on prestige and peer-assessment.SPE155 wrote:Am I missing something on the drop in ranking? I'm still trying to decide where to go and was accepted to W&L and W&M, but over all W&M still seems like the better option after looking at the data used for the ranking:
W&M W&L
LSAT: 161-166 159-165
GPA: 3.46-3.82 3.5-3.8
Accept. %: 22% 24.3%
L&J Score: 3.9 3.9
Employ 9 m: 86.9 90.2
Eploy Grad: 73.8 89.4
Bar Pass: 91.7 72.1 (Statewide %: 77.4)
This says to me that W&L's employment numbers boosts them above W&M and all else goes to W&M as a win. But I would hope percentage wise W&L is higher because they have half as many people. Looking at attendance numbers, W&M placed an estimated 66 more students into jobs, which means bigger alumni network to me. Plus when you graduate at W&L it looks like you don't know enough to even pass the bar.
This jump in rank just seems odd to me. Being orginally from VA and having several friends who are practicing attorneys in the state, the general consensus has always been UVA>W&M>W&L.
And, also being from VA, WM/WL have always been peer schools, with WL being ranked higher for all but 3 years of US News' rankings.
EDIT: BIGGER alumni support network doesn't mean better. WL has one of the smallest, but most supportive, in the country.