University of South Carolina School of Law
Stats
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Ratings & Rankings
Colored bars represent the range of average school ratings. Black line is this school's rating.
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Practical/Clinical Training
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Career Counseling
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Financial Aid Advising
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Social Life
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More Ratings*
Student | Alumni | |
---|---|---|
C | B | |
C- | C | |
C- | B+ | |
B+ | A | |
A+ | A |
US News Rank
What do these ratings mean?
The ATL School and Firm Insiders Survey asks self-identified current students, alumni, and practicing lawyers to rate major aspects of life at their law school (academics, social life, clinical training, career services, financial aid advising) and/or law firm (compensation, hours, morale, culture, training). We then translate these ratings into letter grades, where the mean score for each particular ratings category is the equivalent of a “B.”
We require a minimum threshold of responses for each institution before we publish any survey-based ratings content. Using a standard formula for statistical validity, we adhere to a threshold that gives us an 85% confidence level and a 10% margin of error. The precise threshold number will of course vary depending on the size of the individual institution. For example, for a law firm of 1,000 attorneys, we would require 50 responses in order to publish ratings for the firm.
Employment
Class of 2016, data from Law School Transparency and the American Bar Association
14%
1 %
Employment 18 %
Required* 67 %
Funded 0 %
Clerkships 2 %
8 %
Large Firm
Long-term, full-time jobs at law firms that employ 101 or more attorneys. Due to data limitations,
this score may include paralegals and administrative staff.
Federal Clerkship
Long-term, full-time federal clerkships. Usually, these jobs have a duration of one year, though
sometimes graduates obtain two-year appointments or "career clerk" positions.
School Funded
All jobs funded by the school, including long-term, short-term, full-time and part-time.
Bar Passage Required*
The percentage of the entire class working in long-term, full-time positions. Excludes solo
practitioners.
Other Employment
All employment nine months after graduation, including short-term, JD advantage, professional, and
non-professional positions.
Unknown
Non-respondents and unknown credentials.
Unemployed
All unemployed students including those seeking graduate degrees and not seeking employment.
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Large Firm | 8 |
Federal Clerkships | 2 |
Government | 7.66% |
Public Interest | 2.25% |
The ATL Career Center's goal is to reconcile publicly available employment data for the class of 2013, nine months after graduation. We compared data from the American Bar Association, Law School Transparency, National Association for Legal Professionals, and individual school websites. If any information is inaccurate, please contact us at careers@abovethelaw.com.
Student Career Plans
Sector | Anticipated | Actual |
---|---|---|
Source: ATL Insider Survey and the American Bar Association | ||
Work for a firm | 43% | 30% |
Work for government | 29% | 8% |
Work in non-profit/public interest | 2% | |
Go solo | 1% |
Insider Reviews
from students and alumni of University of South Carolina School of Law
South Carolina did a fine job preparing me for practice.
Alumni
The career services is a joke. Maybe it has changed in the (almost) two years since I graduated but I doubt it. Unless you get one of the few jobs available through OCI you’ll be on your own. Also there have been some recent changes in the administration since the school’s descent into the third-tier toilet but the focus remains on getting the money to build a new law school. Merely entering into the current building is enough to make you lose your will to live so a new law school is long overdue BUT the rush for cash has led to increased class sizes, more lax admission standards, and a lack of long-term focus. By lack of long-term focus I mean on keeping the best interests of students in mind. Due to administrative failures good professors have been lost, the diversity of class offerings is low, and more time is spent courting wealthy alumni than focusing on creating a positive environment for current students so that when thet graduate they WANT to give back. / / Additionally, this is another school that manipulates stats. I graduated in 2010 and at graduation I could count on two hands how many students had legal jobs. I don’t know what was reported to US News but I doubt it was accurate. / / There are some positives. The school has an outstanding public interest department and several attractive dual degrees. Also the school has a pretty good record of getting students into tax llm programs at nyu and Florida.
Alumni
School is constantly working to improve. Great bang for your buck at USC.
2L
That you better plan on staying in South Carolina if you want a job.
3L
Helps to be from the area and connected to people in the big firms. Nepotism helps more than being in the top 20%.
3L
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