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Law Schools Report Accurate Data to U.S. News
Tweet Share on Facebook December 29, 2010 Comment (4)Just how honest were law schools when they reported their data to U.S. News for our 2011 Best Law Schools rankings? Each year, we ask law schools to report the same statistical information to us that they report on the American Bar Association's (ABA) annual accreditation questionnaire. Despite some notable exceptions and data errors over the years, it turns out the schools are pretty reliable in their data reporting.
The basis for this conclusion comes from a recent study by Tom Bell, a law professor at the Chapman University School of Law in Orange, Calif. He has just published "Z-Scores in Model of 2011 USN&WR Law School Rankings" on his blog Agoraphilia.
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Avoid Overemphasizing Law School Rankings
Tweet Share on Facebook December 22, 2010 Comment (4)Ever-growing documentation is proving just how important the U.S. News Best Law Schools rankings are to prospective law school students in choosing where to apply. The latest such evidence comes from a Kaplan Test Prep survey of October 2010 LSAT test takers released last month.
One key survey question: "What is most important to you when picking a law school to apply to?" According to Kaplan's results, 30 percent of test takers say that a law school's ranking is the most critical factor, followed by geographic location at 24 percent; academic programming at 19 percent; and affordability at 12 percent. Only 8 percent of respondents consider a law school's job placement statistics to be the most important factor.
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U.S. News Pledges to Publish More Law School Employment Data
Tweet Share on Facebook December 16, 2010 Comment (3)U.S. News wants to set the record straight about our decision to publish more of the employment data we collect from law schools as part of our annual Best Law Schools rankings.
U.S. News is in the midst of doing a major redesign of the Education section of usnews.com. The current plan is that the redesign will be rolled out in phases in winter 2011. As part of the redesign process, we took a close look at all the graduate school surveys we conduct to see which data was not being published on usnews.com. U.S. News currently reports the overall percentage of graduates employed at graduation and nine months after graduation.
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Submit Photos of Your College to U.S. News
Tweet Share on Facebook December 15, 2010 Comment (1)After many requests from students and school officials for more photos on usnews.com, we have decided to incorporate pictures of college campuses and student life into each school's homepage on our Best Colleges site.
We have asked schools to submit photos of their campus buildings and shots of student life—whatever best represents the school. The photos will debut on usnews.com in early 2011, one component of a larger redesign that will give the entire U.S. News Education section a sleeker look and increased functionality.
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NACAC Issues More Results From College Rankings Report
Tweet Share on Facebook December 9, 2010 Comment (1)The NACAC/U.S. News & World Report Ad Hoc Committee recently published the next phase of its study on the attitudes of college admission counseling professionals toward the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings. This report is called How NACAC Members Use U.S. News & World Report Rankings—The Second in a Three-Part Series.
U.S. News wrote about the National Association for College Admission Counseling's first report in NACAC Issues First Report on Best Colleges Rankings.
Highlights from this report include:
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Report: More Government Involvement Needed in College Search Process
Tweet Share on Facebook December 3, 2010 Comment (2)Prospective students and their parents need more and far better information—particularly about outcomes—in order to help them decide the best school to attend and the federal government should take the lead to distribute this information and mandate new data requirements. This conclusion is from a just released report, "Grading Higher Education Giving Consumers the Information They Need," by Harvard University professor Bridget Terry Long.
