<li>Boston College MA $41,000 $125,000
2 Boston University MA $42,000 $125,000
3 Columbia University NY $45,716 $125,000
4 Cornell University NY $43,326 $125,000
5 Duke University NC $41,000 $125,000
7 Fordham University NY $45,000 $125,000
8 George Washington U. DC $42,500 $125,000
9 Georgetown University DC $43,000 $125,000
10 Harvard University MA $44,222 $125,000
11 New York University NY $44,352 $125,000
12 Northwestern University IL $40,000 $125,000
13 U. of California (Hastings) CA $40,000 $125,000
14 U. of California-Berkeley CA $40,000 $125,000
15 U. of California-Los Angeles CA $44,500 $125,000
16 U. of Chicago IL $44,000 $125,000
17 U. of Michigan-Ann Arbor MI $43,326 $125,000
18 U. of Pennsylvania PA $42,000 $125,000
19 U. of Southern California CA $46,000 $125,000</li>
</ol>
<p>As employment and/or clerkships are pretty important factors in deciding where to apply and matriculate, the judge/lawyer assessment rankings amongst the top 35 or so ranked schools might be important info to break down and consider:</p>
<p>i've always heard the big 3 in the bay area are still stanford, boalt, and hastings. US News has davis/king above hastings, but is that really the case?</p>
<p>oxypomona, i have a question about the median salaries. why is, say UCLA or UChicago, ranked below Boalt or Hastings or Northwestern when all of their median private sector salaries are the same but UCLA and UChicago have higher median public sector salaries? i wanted to say perhaps it was adjusted for cost of living, but if we standardized, it doesnt make sense why northwestern is ranked higher than UChicago when Uchicago has the higher numbers...</p>
<p>oxypomona, i have a question about the median salaries. why is, say UCLA or UChicago, ranked below Boalt or Hastings or Northwestern when all of their median private sector salaries are the same but UCLA and UChicago have higher median public sector salaries? i wanted to say perhaps it was adjusted for cost of living, but if we standardized, it doesnt make sense why northwestern is ranked higher than UChicago when Uchicago has the higher numbers...</p>
<p>If you want to work at a biglaw firm in San Francisco after graduation, you should go to Hastings hands down. There are a lot of firms that recruit at Hastings but not Davis. </p>
<p>Even if you are more of a public-interest type, I would say go to Hastings because there are a ton of part-time public interest gigs available throughout the school year. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't think Davis students would be able to swing an internship in Sacramento while also going to class nearly as easily.
When I was applying to schools two years ago, Hastings was a few spots below Davis in overall USNWR ranking, but was much, much higher in reputation. I believe it was 19th or 20th overall for reputation, about even with USC. </p>
<p>Also, although the Hastings housing isn't great, most students don't live on campus. Some commute from the East Bay, South Bay and North Bay, but most live in other parts of San Francisco like Russian Hill, the Misson, Noe Valley, the Haight, Inner Sunset, Inner Richmond, etc. Since Hastings is right next to Muni and BART, it is super convenient. Plus it is great being right next to all the courts.</p>
<p>Thomas E. Brennan, his legal career - as a practitioner, judge, and educator - spans nearly half a century. He was elected to the Supreme Court of Michigan in 1966, and in 1969 he was chosen by his colleagues on the Supreme Court as the youngest Chief Justice in the nation at that time. He is a member of the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation
The American Bar Association has steadfastly refused to recognize or cooperate with any effort to rank or rate law schools. The Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has adopted a strong position opposing such rankings. The 1994 Review of Legal Education in the United States expresses the Bar's position unequivocally.
Despite disapproval of the organized bar, law school ratings prosper. U. S. News and World Report continues to sell briskly when its annual winners and losers are announced.
Unfortunately, there is more at stake in law school ranking than just a little harmless academic chauvinism. The fact is that perceptions drive reality. Prospective students, employers, and job-hunting law teachers read the U. S. News and World Report ratings. They believe what they read and act on those beliefs.
Where does U. S. News and World Report get its information? They ask the same people who read and believe their magazine. They ask law teachers, lawyers, and judges to tell them what they think, believe and feel. It is totally subjective and without substance.
Judging the Law Schools
Methodology
All raw data used in Judging the Law Schools came from the 1994 Review of Legal Education in the United States, published by the American Bar Association's Section of Legal Education and Admissions. Fifty categories were developed, based on the type of data collected and reported by the ABA, to rank law schools. Some of the categories are straight numerical computations. Other categories are calculations Judge Brennan thought to be significant ratios. The law schools were ranked according to the results.
The fifty categories were divided into five indexes: Institutional Index, Faculty Index, Diversity Index, Library Index, and Value Index. Two additional indexes, the Quality Index and Composite Index, were developed using the five descriptive indexes. In determining the Quality and Composite Indexes, the Library Index is weighted by a factor of four and the Faculty Index by a factor of two to achieve more balance among the five primary indexes. The weighting of the Faculty and Library Indexes is based on Judge Brennan`s experience and expertise in legal education and the assumption that the Faculty and Library data are an indication of a law school's academic resources.
The Quality Index does not include the Value Index because cost is not a component of quality. It also does not include the Diversity Index. While some may argue that learning in a diverse environment is more effective, others believe that a homogeneous environment is equally hospitable to learning.
The Composite Index makes no claim to identifying the best law schools in America. It does rank the schools according to the most objective criteria available and generally favors law schools which are conceded to be strong in most areas.</p>
<p>Top Twenty Law Schools Based on the Composite Index</p>
<ol>
<li> University of California Berkeley</li>
<li> Columbia University</li>
<li> University of Minnesota</li>
<li> Harvard University</li>
<li> New York University</li>
<li> University of Iowa</li>
<li> University of Texas</li>
<li> Ohio State University</li>
<li> University of Michigan</li>
<li>Southern University</li>
<li>University of California Hastings</li>
<li>Georgetown University</li>
<li>Northwestern University</li>
<li>Yale University</li>
<li>University of Illinois</li>
<li>University of Virginia</li>
<li>University of Washington</li>
<li>University of Florida</li>
<li>University of New Mexico</li>
<li>Louisiana State University</li>
</ol>