Welcome to Your Rankings. While the information below was previously presented on the landing page, it got a bit “slapped in the face by text”-esque. Thus, I’ve moved it here. Hopefully the below information will help provide context and information, if you are curious about the site. Otherwise, if you ended up here by accident, I’ve done my best to ensure that all information critical to actually using and understanding the systems, are presented in shorter form on either the landing page, or respective system pages. Anyway;
Applying to law school is—while I won’t patronizingly say “the hardest process in the world”—a bit of a painful process. Partly due to the process itself, but largely due to the number of schools, massively variable outcomes associated with said schools, and enormous differences in cost, portability (where you are likely to be able to practice upon graduation from a given school), and numerous other factors. However, the ABA has done an outstanding job of collecting vast amounts of data on law schools across the country, to bring greater transparency and security to the process.
The problem? Very few people want to dig though thousands of lines of excel spreadsheets to access this data (which is understandable). Thus, I hope to at least lend some small assistance to the goal of transparency and “understandability” for all of this data, through the creation of this site. The problem? Very few people want to dig though thousands of lines of excel spreadsheets to access this data (which is understandable). Thus, I hope to at least lend some small assistance to the goal of transparency and “understandability” for all of this data, through the creation of this site. Below is a brief explanation of the three primary tools, all of which can be accessed through the page navigation menu above, or the links that will follow. For more detailed information, please see the “Methodology and Disclosures” page, in the navigation bar above.
The Tools:
Item 1). Dynamic Ranking – Click here to access
– With this tool, you can assign weights to 4 data metrics, listed below. The tool then calculates a ranked list, from 1 to 196, of all law schools, based on your inputs.
– Example: .5 weight for unemployment, .25 weight for USWNR rank, and .25 weight for total estimated cost of attendance (COA).
o Under these conditions, the top thee schools in the US would be;
– BYU (if you are of the LDS denomination, please note BYU does not recognize in/out of state tuition, but rather LDS/non-LDS status.
– University of Illinois
– University of Iowa
– Thus, the idea with this tool is to allow greater flexibility when determining an applicant’s best fit, rather than running the kind of cost-benefit analysis against USWNR rank, that is currently the most common practice.
o Please note: this is NOT some proprietary numerological wizardry system; doing additional research to confirm how well a school aligns with your needs cannot be replaced by any automated system (at least not by one I am capable of creating). This is simply to assist you in steering your research toward schools statistically aligned with your unique needs.
– Currently, 4 (technically 5) metrics can be assessed, with more to be added based on user feedback:
o Cost, by the two metrics below;
– Total Estimated COA (for how this number is calculated, see “Methodology and Disclosures”). I recommend this option, as it factors in scholarships and cost of living.
– A simple “tuition + fees” calculation.
o BigLaw/Federal Clerkship Employment Percentage (used as a general stand-in for assessing the quality of employment outcomes after graduation; additional metrics for assessing this will be added in the future)
o USWNR rank (there is definitely a lot of value in the USWNR research and rankings, including this allows for some integration of their work)
o Unemployment (this is negatively weighted, so schools with high unemployment, will be ranked lower; only the “unemployed and seeking” [so not unemployed by choice as part of continued study] is factored into this.)
Item 2). View, Research, and Browse (VRB) – Click here to access
– This is a data repository of what appears to be the most commonly relevant data regarding law school admissions and outcomes, of the last 10 years. Not every data point has been included, simply due to the absolutely massive amount of data collected by the ABA. Thus, my goal here has been to include the most commonly inquired data, in order to streamline the user interface.
– Currently available are:
o Percentage of graduates entering into each ABA-recognized employment field, within 12 months of graduation
o Percentage of graduates who are unemployed 12 months after graduation
o Financial data such as tuition, fees, and average scholarship amount
o And a handful of additional data, such as top three employment locations for graduates
– Years, schools, and data points can be sorted and filtered to, hopefully, give you more accessible insights into the information contained in the ABA disclosures.
Item 3). Mobile Version – Click here to access
– This is a lite version of the SRB tool, until I am able to condense/streamline Dynamic Ranking onto a mobile-sized screen. Allows for general school research on mobile devices. Please note that all tools can be used on mobile devices in landscape mode, but may have UI issues; desktop is highly recommended for any items other than the mobile version.
Additional instructions and guides for use of each tool are available on their respective pages, but hopefully this gives you an introduction to the site and the tools.
I sincerely welcome any feedback for additional data points, metrics, or user experience/interface improvements, and I hope this will be helpful in your process!
(dynamic ranking tool included here as well, for anyone who just skims until they see something interesting)