We have received some e-mails notifying us of a new lead regarding the controversial copy of the supposedly leaked 2010 U.S. News Law School Rankings, providing color photographs of the allegedly new rankings.Although U.S. News declined to comment when contacted by Above The Law, the rankings appear to be legitimate dispelling our prior belief that the leaked rankings were a hoax.
This interesting development is sure to prompt tons of controversy. We hope, however, that prospective students will heed Craig's sage advice that all rankings--whether "real" or "fake"--be taken with a grain of salt.
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UPDATE (Apr. 20, 12:35 PM): Here are links to scans from the magazine: 1-55; 56-100.
Dean Lawrence takes 5 months to grade our exams to raise our ranking, and we drop to 28?!?!? Someone MUST be held accountable
ReplyDeleteWere the PT stats respsnible for the drop?
ReplyDeleteI don't care what people say, the rankings matter to employers and affect perception. I'm making my decision based on the rankings because the rankings reflect the quality of the value I'm getting.
ReplyDeleteHow is it that Hofstra, Gonzaga, and U of Maine are tied for 100th but also appear in the 3rd tier? That's an odd anomaly...
ReplyDeleteI'm not buying any of this. The rough scan looks nothing like the color scans. For starters, the page numbers are different.
ReplyDeleteGW's LSAT range is 162-168? I could be wrong, but wasn't GW's average LSAT 167 or 168 last year? Why the decline?
ReplyDelete"Median" LSAT is different from "average" LSAT.
ReplyDeleteThese rankings are fake. There is no way GW would go to #28. They raised their LSAT.
ReplyDelete3:17->Yeah so I realize that the LSAT is the only factor that U.S. News considers in its methodology.
ReplyDeleteAs a GW 1L, this really worries me. Do firms care about the rankings when deciding where to interview and who to hire? The thing that kills me is I chose GW over 6 schools that are still in the T25
ReplyDelete4:23...stop being ridiculous. This means nothing....GW has a fantastic student based/fantastic OCI process/professors, etc. IF someone is dumb enough to choose schools like Iowa or UIllinois or Indiana over GW now that they are ranked higher, they will pay dearly. GW places biglaw JUST as well as freaking GTOWN. So I would stop your whining and get back to work....sheessh
ReplyDelete"...as well as freaking GTOWN?" Really, 4:51?
ReplyDelete4:23: Don't sweat it. Firms base their hiring decisions based on past experience with the students at the law school. They're not sitting here depending on an ENTERTAINMENT magazine to rank law schools for them. They could give two shits whether GW is 20th or 28th. Almost every Vault 100 law firm recruits at GW's OCI, and GW places very well in BigLaw, so it's a clear indication that the firms like having GW students.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, the only concern with a dropped ranking is that there is somewhat of a feedback loop -- i.e. GW's ranking falls, good students start to think that it's not a good school, these good students go elsewhere leaving GW with worse students, these worse students represent GW at the law firms, causing firms to have worse experiences with these students, and thereby giving the firms a bad impression of recruiting at GW. In other words, it may be a very long-term effect. But in the short-term, it makes absolutely, positively, ZERO difference.
4:57: GW isn't that far behind. GTown lands 49% of its JDs in BigLaw, while GW lands 43.7%:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.law.com/img/nlj/charts/20090223gotoschools.jpg
It looks like GW got hit in part because both full-time and part-time students were included in its LSAT and GPA ranges. That might also be why 1:48 thinks the LSAT scores that US News is using are too low.
ReplyDeleteGW has a long road ahead to recover from such a huge dent in its reputation.
ReplyDeleteThe color picture makes it look legit, but I still think this is a scam. Maybe USN is trying to generate hype by deliberately shelling out a fake?
ReplyDeleteWay to go Indiana U Bloomington! Jeez
ReplyDeleteI have it on good knowledge the rankings are FAKE. Your initial hunch was right and heads will roll when the real rankings are released.
ReplyDeleteThe prestige factor in the rankings is important because that shows what the employers actually think of law schools. The average LSAT shows the quality of the student body (GPAs dont tell much across schools). Many of the other statistics can be manipulated by schools (eg hiring their own grads).
ReplyDeletePT rankings were never to be included in this year's US News Rankings. Had they been, GULC would have had a huge drop as well. The fact that GULC did not drop, shows that these are likely bogus.
ReplyDelete