Group Tries to Start Boycott of U.S. News Law School Rankings

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Most people learn to pass the Bar at Bar-Bri or Kaplan, not in law school. There are very few schools that concentrate on the black letter law. In fact schools that tend to focus on getting their students to pass the bar exam tend to be from the lowest tiers. There are different requirements by state and Yale grads are likely to take the New York Bar, which is widely regarded as one of the more difficult exams in the country. The same could be said of UC Berkley, as its graduates take the bar in a state which is perenially considered one of the toughest in the union, they have a relatively unimpressive pass rate.

Max of FL 12:49AM June 07, 2010

Most people learn to pass the Bar at Bar-Bri or Kaplan, not in law school. There are very few schools that concentrate on the black letter law. In fact schools that tend to focus on getting their students to pass the bar exam tend to be from the lowest tiers. There are different requirements by state and Yale grads are likely to take the New York Bar, which is widely regarded as one of the more difficult exams in the country. The same could be said of UC Berkley, as its graduates take the bar in a state which is perenially considered one of the toughest in the union, they have a relatively unimpressive pass rate.

Max of FL 12:49AM June 07, 2010

Mrs. Hume, you make an excellent and valid point--and it's quite surprising to see that many big-name schools are quite low in the rankings when you sort the list by percentage passing the bar.
However, you have to remember that passing the bar (and the vast majority of Harvard, Yale, etc. students do pass) is just one step; securing a job is another. When you rank the 2009 list by percent employed after 9 months, there are much fewer surprises.
http://www.ilrg.com/rankings/law/index.php/1/desc/Employ9Mos/2009
Perhaps the top 3 schools on that list aren't fail-safe for passing the bar, but at least you have over a 99% chance of getting a job. Sounds pretty good in this economy, no?
I hope that U.S. News does include bar passing rates and job acceptance rates in their rankings. If not, what would their list be worth?

Kenneth Burchfiel of VA 3:49AM May 31, 2010

The LSAT just measures the students coming in instead of the students coming out.
Passing the bar measures the students coming out. Seems to me that is the measure of the program.
For fun and objectivity, it would be nice to run correlations of the LSAT score of entering students and their bar passing rate when they graduate. (Some of the top rated law schools would probably score negative correlations on such a measure)
Obviously, we should expect the schools with the best entering students and best programs and allegedly best professors to top the list of those passing the bar on the first try. Too bad they don't.
http://www.ilrg.com/rankings/law/index.php/1/desc/Bar/2007
Anyway, it would be even more fun to generate an expected passing rate index based on the schools expected ability to have its graduates pass the bar. Then rank them based on how well students actually pass.
Interestingly in 2009 Yale's students come in with LSAT's from 165-175 and pass the bar at 91.2% on the first try. http://www.ilrg.com/rankings/law/index.php/1/desc/Bar/2009
Gee whiz, even the fundies at Liberty University can beat that at 94.4% and do it with no prestige, in only their second graduating class, and with students who only scored 148-153 on the LSAT's.
http://www.hg.org/law-schools-virginia.asp
http://liberty.lawschoolnumbers.com/
Maybe the LSAT is biased against fundies and the bar exam is biased against Yale law grads. You know, testing bias. Whereas Yale's prestige is absolutely objective.
Of course the real test of any education is getting a job, and friends help friends. The faculty of Yale can depend on their friends and reputation to get their grads jobs.
So much for blind justice.

Mrs. Hume of TX 4:54PM May 29, 2010