U.S. News Gives 0Ls Law School Advice, Fails

What questions should you ask your prospective law school -- if you wanted useless answers.

U.S. News & World Report, the dedicated rankings site venerable news magazine, supplements its proclamations of law school worth with a recurring column purporting to counsel prospective law students on how they should go about their academic missions. Like its rankings, which place more of a premium on how many physical book volumes reside — unopened — in the school library than on the underemployment faced by recent graduates, USNWR’s advice for students often misses the mark on what an actual, real-life law student would actually need to know about.

Take today’s column: Important Questions to Ask Law School Staff, Alumni, in which “Law School Lowdown” columnist Shawn P. O’Connor lists some key questions students could ask Admissions. You know, if they didn’t want to get helpful answers.

USNWR Question For Admissions: What are the most common career paths for graduates of your law school?

Why in the world would an admissions office worth its salt provide anything but cherry-picked anecdotes? “Common career paths? Well, one of our alums is a former Governor and another served as a Congressman before becoming a Biglaw partner. So that’s a good cross-section.” Sound impressive? Congratulations! You’re going to Thomas M. Cooley. Or you would if they were letting in 1Ls.

“Common career paths” is impermissibly vague.

Better Question: How many of your graduates have secured full-time employment offers before 3L year?

You can’t research a law school without tripping over their notable alumni. There are also great resources available that show how successful the school is at placing students in “jobs” — even considering underemployment. But the real test of how well the school prepares its grads for the future is in how well they prepare their students for the present. If the school isn’t placing students in full-time jobs before they begin 3L year, either because the 2L summer gigs offered to students are fly-by-night — or worse, non-existent — that’s a sign of the strength of the law school’s ability to woo employers. If it’s a mad scramble to get jobs for students 3L year or beyond, that’s a long-term trend that no number of one-off success stories can overcome.

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USNWR Question For Admissions: What programs do you have for this specific area of law?

This is so dumb I’m just going to include the whole USNWR write-up here:

This is a great question to ask if you already have a sense of what type of law you would like to practice.

The best way to ask this type of question is to do some research before you reach out to the admissions office so that you can ask about a specific clinic, area of specialty or professor. This will show that you are interested in that school in particular, and your interest has led you to do further independent research and follow up on that research.

How many 0Ls (or Ks, as in “not yet Ls,” as many are calling them to save on Twitter characters) know what type of law they’d like to practice before going to school? I mean, other than they want to be “constitutional lawyers.” If students had a true grasp of what it means to practice a particular area of law, then we wouldn’t need law school at all. The law school “journey” — if you’ll permit that unnecessary romanticization — is about discovering that, what do you know, ERISA is your jam.

If a student is locked into a practice before committing to a school, they’re a tool. And probably not going to learn the most important lessons of law school.

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Better Question: Who teaches your clinical and practical offerings?

It’s not important that there’s a clinical program, but who teaches the clinical program. Does the professor have substantial past — or if they’re an adjunct, current — experience in the field? If the instructor is an established presence in the field, with a sterling reputation and strong professional ties, this is what turns your clinical experience into something that can translate into a job, or better yet, a lifelong career. With law schools tripping all over themselves to boast “practice-ready” opportunities, it’s worth digging to find out how many “top-flight clinics” are really paper tigers.

USNWR Question For Admissions: Is there a current student I can get in touch with to further discuss the experience of being a student here?

At this point, USNWR recognizes that admissions might — just might — try to cherry-pick the process to point you toward Pollyanna-ish alumni outcomes. Welcome to the party, USNWR. But instead of asking to meet a student, who will probably be another go-getter on admissions’ radar…

Better Question: Good-bye. I’m going to go to the bar down the street and actually ask a random student about this place.

People are generally helpful. And law students are drunks. Go buy them a drink and get the lowdown.

USNWR Question For Students and Alumni: What is it actually like to be a student at this school?

This is the only question USNWR offers for students and alumni. Did the author just get lazy here? USNWR offered pointed, if not stellar, questions for admissions and then when it comes to students, “Meh, what’s it like?” As though this is a guided enough question to get any more than a vague sense that it’s “school-like.” Thanks.

Better Question: [Every question you asked Admissions.]

Admissions doesn’t have a monopoly on specific information. Law students talk. “Do your 3L friends have jobs lined up?” “What clinics are you taking? Who teaches them? Have they been helpful in career advice?” And for the alums: “Debt… what’s up with that?” These are the questions you should be asking.

Maybe students don’t have the 30,000-foot view of every issue, but collecting several 5,000-foot views goes a long way to sorting out the (often well-meaning) BS you’re getting from the school itself.

Important Questions to Ask Law School Staff, Alumni [U.S. News & World Report]

Earlier: Much Maligned Law School Cuts First-Year Class, Announces Layoffs
Career Services Need Help, Y’All
The Myth Of The ‘Practice Ready’ Law Graduate