We know how much our readers love rankings, so this is probably a good time to let you know that the National Jurist has released its eighth annual list of the law schools thought to offer the “Best Value” to law students — usually a list dominated by public schools with a smattering of private schools. The magazine also released its second annual list of the “best value” private law schools at the same time.
The Best Value ranking system typically takes into account a law school’s tuition (weighted 25 percent), students’ cost of living expenses (10 percent), students’ average indebtedness upon graduation (15 percent), the percentage of graduates who got a job after graduation (35 percent), and bar passage rates (15 percent).
What’s so exciting about this year’s list? For starters, the list of the overall “Best Value” list includes the most private law schools to date, in part due to the fact that average indebtedness is down since law schools started tossing out scholarships like Mardi Gras beads just to convince students to enroll.
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Let’s take a look at the 2014 “Best Value” rankings…
Please note the UPDATE on the second page of this post.
This time around, 53 law schools are being honored as conferring the “Best Value” upon students, up from 47 law schools last year, and 46 law schools the year before that. Here’s what Jack Crittenden, editor-in-chief of the National Jurist, had to say about the latest edition of his magazine’s rankings:
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“When law school enrollment began to drop a few years ago, some schools began to offer more scholarships. We are now starting to see the beginning of that impact on debt. Also, employment numbers are improving, even if slightly.”
In case you missed it, the key word in Crittenden’s last sentence was “slightly.” As we noted previously, nine months after receiving their law degrees, 57 percent of graduates of the class of 2013 were employed in full-time, long-term jobs where bar passage was required, compared with 56.2 percent of the class of 2012. We’re living in a post-recession world where “progress” is measured by tenths of a percentage point.
What’s notable, though, is that this year there are six private law schools (Baylor, BYU, Duquesne University, Notre Dame Law School, Ohio Northern, and Boston College) on the overall list — more than ever before. This prompted National Jurist to trumpet from the roof tops that “it’s still possible for students to graduate with under $100,000 in debt and land a job.” Meanwhile, according to U.S. News, students at one of those law schools not only graduate with more than $100,000 in debt, but less than two-thirds of them are employed as lawyers nine months after graduation. We’re off to a great start.
Without further ado, here’s the alphabetical list of the National Jurist’s 2014 Best Value Law Schools:
Baylor University
Boston College
Brigham Young University
Duquesne University
Florida International University
Florida State University
Georgia State University
IU McKinney School of Law
Louisiana State University
Notre Dame Law School
Ohio Northern University
Ohio State University
Rutgers — Camden
SUNY Buffalo Law School
Temple University
Texas Tech University
UC – Irvine
UC Davis Law
University of Akron
University of Alabama
University of Arizona
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
University of Cincinnati
University of Florida
University of Georgia
University of Houston
University of Idaho
University of Illinois
University of Iowa
University of Kansas
University of Kentucky
University of Louisville
University of Memphis
University of Minnesota
University of Mississippi
University of Missouri — Columbia
University of Nebraska
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
University of New Mexico
University of North Carolina
University of Oklahoma
University of Pittsburgh
University of South Carolina
University of Tennessee
University of Texas
University of Tulsa
University of Utah
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin
University of Wyoming
Wayne State University
William and Mary Law School
Flip to the next page to see the list of the “Best Value” private law schools…