Behold! ATL Launches Definitive Law School Research Resource

Check out the new ATL Law School Research Directory!

As Staci observed earlier this week, if law students took data into account, we’d be living in a different world. Today, in the interest of moving a bit closer to that sunnier, happier planet, we launch the latest component of our Career Center: The ATL Law School Directory.

There’s been no small amount of discussion around here regarding the disconnect between the career and salary expectations of incoming law students and the majority of their post-graduation realities. Yet we are continually reminded that most 0L “research” consists of blind adherence to a single, arguably dubious data point, and nothing else.

However, there is reason to believe that some would-be law students are doing their due diligence and turning into won’t-be law students, but still, there continue to be of a hell of a lot of applicants at all levels, from “prestige whores” to “low hanging fruit.” Clearly, while we’ve no agenda aimed at discouraging folks from applying to law school per se, we do oppose uninformed and under-researched decisions to do so. The Law School Directory is an indispensable resource for aspiring law students willing to do their homework. (Which, based on some strong anecdotal evidence, we understand is a characteristic of successful actual law students.)

The ATL Law School Directory is to 0L-relevant data and information what the Ronco Veg-O-Matic is to vegetables (It Slices! It Dices!). You can sort law schools by a wide array of analyzing variables: employment outcomes, admissions criteria, top law firm employers, and much more, including the the results of our ongoing ATL Insider Survey, where current students and alumni rate the major aspects of the law school experience, from academics to social life.

So which are the best schools for Biglaw placement? Public interest placement? Clinical training? The Directory has the answers. After the jump, check out a sampling of our ratings tables, including the list of schools which are tops at losing track of their own alumni….

The Overall Alumni Rating averages the scores given to a school by the firm’s alumni in these categories: Academics, Career Counseling, Social Life, Clinical Training, and Financial Aid Advising. According to our survey, here are the five schools held in the highest regard by their graduates:

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For the full ratings table please see here.

(By the way, if you haven’t yet, please take a few minutes and take our ATL Insider Survey.)

Not all law students are bound for the avaricious world of Biglaw. Here are the schools which place the highest percentage of their grads in the public interest sector:

For the full ratings table, please see here.

When law schools report employment data to the ABA, included is the number of graduates for whom the school was unable to learn employment status. We’re not sure exactly what meaning to ascribe to this data, but it must mean something, right? Here are the schools who’ve lost track of the largest proportion of their recent alumni:

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For more information about law schools, be sure to check out the new ATL Law School Directory.