Comments on: US News Law School Rankings: A Comparison With 1998 And 1995

By: Louie

Louie — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:06:22 +0000

Stumbled on this (rather old) post and felt compelled to comment, if only to say this: Poor Alison, who was choosing between those two schools, would be entering the legal market right . . . now. Let’s all take a moment to mourn her stillborn legal career.

By: Alison B.

Alison B. — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 17:21:50 +0000

Hello,

Begging your insight–the list mentions the schools I am considering in terms of move ratio– but you dont actually go that far in the listings. I am having to make a decision once & for all between St. Mary’s Univ. and Texas Wesleyan Univ……yes, I realize, not the most earth shattering decision– both 4th tier, etc- who cares, — however, this is quite likely an excessively important decision for my life, so Im trying desperately to get a finite, qualitative answer as to which is the bottom line “better” school. Opposing opinions abound– yes, Wesleyan is newer & has less of an alumni base, or reputation in the industry– however I have been advised that St. Mary’s has had a serious drop in quality over the past 6-8 years, having a low bar pass rate, etc…and also unless I plan to focus on international business w/ Mexico or immigration, not really any more to offer than Wesleyan…so at this point in time– what to believe? I have to decide by Wed….thank you for any educated advice…

Alison

By: Maryland Conservatarian

Maryland Conservatarian — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:44:26 +0000

“Perhaps US News starts with its rough sense of the ranking order and then crafts a ranking formula to get roughly the results it wants.”

Amen…

By: Daniel J. Solove

Daniel J. Solove — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 23:01:13 +0000

Brian — Your point about the vastly different ranking formulas makes Dan’s comparison even more interesting. Despite a decade of time and a very different ranking formula, the overall ranking results aren’t very different. Perhaps US News starts with its rough sense of the ranking order and then crafts a ranking formula to get roughly the results it wants. I’m reminded of Jerome Frank’s quote: “[J]udicial judgments, like other judgments, doubtless, in most cases, are worked out backward from conclusions tentatively formulated.”

By: Brian Leiter

Brian Leiter — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 22:07:08 +0000

The 1995 ranking formula was so different from the 2006 one that this is like comparing two wholly different sets of rankings.

By: FXKLM

FXKLM — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 20:11:31 +0000

Can you explain the “None Listed” item in the 1995 rankings? I can’t figure out what that means.