Yelp Gets In On The Law School Rankings Game

Would you trust Yelp's star-based rating system when choosing a law school?

Law school rankings range from the legitimate to the absurd, but no matter how ridiculous the underlying methodologies may be, lawyers and law students are still eager to find out how well (or how poorly) their alma mater was rated. From the revered U.S. News Law School Rankings to the reviled Cooley Law School Rankings, members of the legal profession have seen them all — until now.

This week, Yelp — the restaurant rating site where lawyers go to make fools of themselves — announced that users can utilize its service to rate law schools. Here’s more information from ChicagoInno on the review company’s foray into the legal market:

Yelp is launching its first round of TV and digital ads, which specifically point out the site can help you choose a university (as well as where to get the best margarita to celebrate your degree).

An ad currently playing on Pandora lays out this new push:

“Let’s say you’re hungry for justice, want to study to become a lawyer and don’t mind paying off hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loans,” said a man in the ad. “We know just the place.”

Would you trust Yelp’s star-based rating system and often cutting reviews to guide you when choosing a law school? As we mentioned just last week, talking to students and alumni is a great way to find out what a given law school is really like. We imagine that checking out a law school’s unsanitized Yelp rating would probably be pretty helpful.

With that said, let’s give this a whirl. We’ll check out the ratings for three top law schools, and three law schools that can arguably be described as some of the worst.

  • Yale Law: 4.5 stars
  • “I love the crowd, even if it is a little on the nerdy side.”

  • U. Chicago Law: 5 stars
  • “Obama used to be on the faculty. And if the UofC Law School is good enough for our president, then its good enough for me (and you!). Good luck getting in.”

  • Michigan Law: 5 stars
  • “I don’t know who does their law school research on Yelp, but Michigan is pretty much the best law school… ever.”

Aww. Everyone loves their T14 law schools. Now, let’s take a look at some other schools.

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  • Thomas Jefferson Law: 3.5 stars
  • “Thomas Jefferson School of Law was the worst decision of my life.”

  • Arizona Summit Law: 3 stars
  • “Having paid several thousands of dollars to attend, students were concerned about the reputation that their degrees carried while attempting to gain employment.”

  • Cooley Law: 1 star
  • “I graduated from the Cooley Law School in 2008. In 2009, I passed the bar exam with the help of Barbri. Now, it’s 2014 and I still have not found full time employment as a lawyer. If I were to do it again, I would have gone to trade school.”

Ouch. Interspersed with the shiny, happy reviews from students and alumni who still won’t acknowledge just how screwed they are, we found the more negative ratings from those who got the short end of the stick from these “lesser” law schools. In other interesting news, we found a review page for Florida Coastal Law, the jewel in InfiLaw’s crown. According to Yelp, the school has closed. Can you say foreshadowing? Yikes.

How does your law school measure up in Yelp’s reviews? Let us know what you think.

P.S. Speaking of law school rankings, Above the Law’s 2015 Top 50 Law School Rankings will be released on May 28th. If you’d like to be one of the first of your friends to receive an advanced copy of this year’s top 10 schools, please click here.

Yelp Launches First TV and Digital Ads, Pointing Out You Can Rate Law Schools [ChicagoInno]

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