Methodology: Part-time Law School Rankings

Part-time J.D. programs play a vital role in legal edu­ca­tion: American Bar Association data reveal that in the fall of 2010, some 21,800, or about 15 percent of U.S. law students were enrolled part time. For many working adults, it's the only way to both afford a law degree and meet other commitments. Fewer than half of the country's law schools offer part-time programs, day or evening, which generally take four years to complete instead of three.

This year, U.S. News presents the rankings of the 85 accredited law schools offering part-time programs. The rankings are based on a weighted average of four factors described in the methodology below: reputation among deans and faculty at peer schools, LSAT scores, undergraduate GPAs of students entering in fall 2011, and the breadth of the part-time focus.

[See the part-time law program rankings.]

For a school's program to be considered in the part-time ranking, it must have reported at least 20 part-time students enrolled in fall 2011 and supplied data on fall 2011 applications and acceptances for its part-time program.

Quality assessment (weighted by 0.50): In fall 2011, deans and three faculty members at each school were asked to rate programs on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding); 49 percent responded and scores for each school were averaged to produce the average peer assessment score of a 5-point scale with 5.0 being the highest.

Selectivity (0.275): For part-time students entering in 2011, this measure combines median LSAT scores (81.8 percent of this indicator) and undergraduate GPAs (18.2 percent).

Part-time focus (0.225): An index was created from data reported by the schools about their 2011 part-time programs. Factors used in the creation of this index include the size of part-time first-year sections; the size of part time, first-year small sections; and the number of positions filled by part-time students in seminars, simulation courses, faculty-supervised clinical courses, field placements, law journals, interschool skills competitions, and independent study. Schools received credit for reporting data and additional credit for surpassing a threshold value in the factors.

Overall rank: Schools' scores on each indicator were standardized, weighted, totaled, and rescaled so that the top school received 100 and other schools received a percentage of the top score.

The part-time J.D. law program data listed for fall 2011 acceptance rate and fall 2012 enrollment is for informational purposes only and is not used in the computation of the part-time J.D. program ranking.

Rank Not Published means that U.S. News did calculate a numerical ranking for that school/program, but decided for editorial reasons that since the school/program ranked below the U.S. News cutoff that U.S. News would not publish the ranking for that school/program on usnews.com. U.S. News will supply schools/programs listed as Rank Not Published with their numerical rankings, if they submit a request following the procedures listed in the Information for School Officials in the About the Best Graduate Schools Rankings section on usnews.com.

Schools/programs marked as Rank Not Published are listed alphabetically. In part-time J.D. programs we have numerically ranked the top three fourths of the part-time J.D. programs. The bottom one quarter of the part-time J.D. programs are listed as Rank Not Published and are listed alphabetically.

Unranked means that U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for that school or program. The school or program did not supply U.S. News with enough key statistical data to be numerically ranked by U.S. News. Schools or programs marked as Unranked are listed alphabetically and are listed below those marked as Rank Not Published.

Sources: U.S. News and the schools. Assessment data collected by Ipsos Public Affairs.

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