Law Schools, Rankings

The ‘Best Value’ Law Schools Of 2016

Which law schools made this year's list?

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law school money LFThe National Jurist recently released its tenth 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 third annual list of the “best value” private law schools.

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).

This year, the number of schools on the list dropped from 64 to 58. Can you guess why?

According to National Jurist, the overall statistics were a bit disappointing:

Employment, which accounts for 35 percent of the ranking, inched up. The average employment of the best value law schools increased from 79.4 percent to 80.3 percent. But all other factors worked in the opposite direction. Bar pass rates dropped slightly, and tuition and average debt increased by modest amounts.

We suppose that saying bar pass rates dropped “slightly” is National Jurist’s way of saying that the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) average dropped to a 33-year low during the timeframe being examined for the sake of its new ranking.

Also noteworthy is the fact that in this iteration of the rankings, there’s just one private law school included in the overall list of the Top 20. Just a few years ago, there were six.

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Here’s the alphabetical list of the National Jurist’s 2016 Best Value Law Schools:

Brigham Young University

Florida State University

Georgia State University

Louisiana State University

Ohio State University

University of Alabama

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

University of Florida Levin College of Law

University of Georgia

University of Idaho

University of Iowa

University of Kansas

University of Kentucky

University of Nebraska

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

University of New Mexico

University of South Dakota

University of Tennessee

University of Wisconsin

West Virginia University

Flip to the next page to see the list of the “Best Value” private law schools.

Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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