Which Law School Deserve You Is The Question

A reader of my blog, PerGynt, responded to my post about the 5 Mistakes In Applying To Law School
with a useful note:

There are lots of good reasons to go to law school. The main one is to become a lawyer. Choose your school for good reasons too. Good schools are where you find them, and you can't always tell which ones might suit you best from a distance. Here's a little blurb about my law school. I think it's something the faculty here should be very proud of.  (Click here for the story about the University of North Dakota School of Law bar passage rate in Minnesota).

UND also has a great placement rate (100%) after graduation.

And, this makes the point well.  U.S. News ranks UND in the bottom tier of law schools.  Near the bottom and just right under University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, which I recently recently blogged about as being great law school.  The better part of the story, from my perspective, is that UND has cheap tuition at $8,386 per year for in-state and living expenses in the state are rather low.

I believe it is time that we throw U.S. News' law school rankings out with the bathwater.  It is fine to say that it is just a resource, but its influences have been far too corrupting.  We have to realize that U.S. News produces these lists of law schools for no better reason than to generate advertising revenues.  The magazine's concern for you is minimal.  However, it appears to have created a phenomena in which law schools are now fighting to conform to U.S. News' criteria for achieving rankings instead of doing what is best for its students.

To those that say that they wish to go to the Harvards, Yales, Stanfords, University of Virginias and University of Michigans, I say you do not need rankings to discerns these schools either.  Harvard, Yale and the rest were around and were well recognized well before U.S. News came around with their rankings, and they had no problem filling their seats with the most qualified.  U.S. News has not done these institutions any favors.  What they have done is hurt the others.

If you wish to be a lawyer, I have always contended you need to look first at the bar passage rates of law schools in the event you have a choice.  You next need to look at the cost of your legal education (both living expenses and tuition).  Schools that disrespect you with outrageous tuition (those that wish to entrap you in decades of high debt) for no better reason to achieve rankings do not necessarily deserve your patronage.  Law school that do not prepare you for the one exam that matters -- the bar exam -- are not right for you.  After these two, there are many factors to consider.  Most of them are personal to you.  Location.  Weather.  Emphasis.  The list goes on.

For example, you think Stanford Law is right for you?  You think it is worth your energy to go to that illustrious institution?  You might wish to consider that it only has a 8.7% acceptance rate.  Its current tuition is $37,836 a year.  Living expenses in California will equal this.  You will likely be in debt up to your eyeballs when you get out.  But, the schools overall bar passage rate is only 62%.  It accepts the best and the brightest and then it fails at the main mission to which it has been entrusted.  Yet, U.S News ranks the school in third place. 

If you are in the process of applying to law school, I wish you the best of luck.  I know it is not easy.

Comments

[Nathan Dosch]

Great post as always, Chuck. I had to reread this one a couple of times because I missed the part where your discussion of UND was taken from an exchange with one of you readers. I thought for a minute that your alma mater was UND. My interests were piqued for two reasons. One, I am a native of North Dakota and I attended undergrad for two years at UND. Second, I am a graduate of Marquette Law School, which seems to teeter on Tier 2 or Tier 3 status with the U.S. News folks. The point is UND is a great school. The bar passage rates and placements stats support this fact by emphasizing, what should be, the main objective for aspiring lawyers. Plus it is one of the most affordable options out there for a quality legal education. My experience with Marquette is not much different. It will continue to be pushed down the list for reasons that are beyond me, but the truth is I could not be happier with my selection of law schools. The truth is we are not all motivated to be Harvard or Stanford type students. Just as we are not all motivated to be Big Law attorneys. The choice of law schools is the most important decision that a future lawyer can make. You are right it is not easy, but I would strongly encourage anyone entertaining the law school option to completely ignore the law school rankings. They mean less than nothing at the end of the day and it will save you the cost of buying the magazine.

[PerGynt]

Less than nothing is correct. The time and effort wasted paying any attention to the rankings is a negative. That is, you have less when you are finished than when you started.
I attend UND LAW. I like it. Very good school.

[Joe]

Great post. I am a recent UND Law alum who passed the bar exam in Indiana (on the first try) and I now have a great, satisfying, and well paying job at a law firm in the South Bend, Indiana area. My student loans are lower than many of the Notre Dame law graduates that I have met and I am making the same amount of money as many of them. I know Notre Dame is raked highly in the US News rankings but it didn't mean anything in terms of my bar passage and my finding a job in a Notre Dame regional market area. I find the whole ranking system silly and misleading.