The Dean's Column
US News Rankings
April 5, 2004
[April 2, 2004], U.S. News & World Reports released “America’s Best Graduate Schools 2004-2005” including its ranking of the nation’s accredited law schools. To create its ranking USNWR considers factors such as opinion data (from judges, deans and faculty) and objective data such as LSAT scores, undergraduate GPAs, employment, and bar passage rates. This year, the magazine ranked the UW 34th, 11 places higher than last year when we took a precipitous drop because of misreported employment data.
Ratings never give a complete picture of an institution, regardless of how carefully the information is collected. Three factors have particularly affected our ranking in recent years: 1) peer assessment; 2) employment rate at graduation; and 3) LSAT scores. On many other measures – for example, undergraduate GPA and bar passage rates – we compare quite favorably with schools ranked well above us.
Below are the UW’s figures from the USNWR’s tables for the past four years.
Year* |
Rank |
Overall score |
Peer Assessment |
Assessment by |
25th- 75th |
25th-75th |
Acceptance rate |
2001-02 |
23 |
62 |
3.3 |
3.4 |
3.39-3.75 |
159-165 |
31% |
2002-03 |
26 |
65 |
3.4 |
3.4 |
3.22-3.78 |
158-166 |
29.6% |
2003-04 |
45 |
57 |
3.2 |
3.4 |
3.46-3.79 |
160-165 |
20% |
2004-05 |
34 |
61 |
3.1 |
3.4 |
3.44-3.79 |
159-166 |
19.3% |
*The listed year represents employment and bar passage data from classes that graduated two years earlier. For example, the 04-05 data reflects information about the class that graduated in 2002. Our 2003 graduating class data included 74% employment at the time of graduation; 99% employment nine months after commencement.
Year |
Rank |
Faculty-student ratio |
Graduates employed |
Employed 9 months |
School’s bar passage |
Jurisdiction’s overall |
2001-02 |
23 |
11.8 |
60% |
94% |
98.7% |
72% |
2002-03 |
26 |
11.7 |
61% |
98% |
89.7% |
80% |
2003-04 |
45 |
11.6 |
76.8% |
75% |
82.4% |
76% |
2004-05 |
34 |
12.5 |
74.5% |
93.8% |
91.6% |
77% |
As you can see, our peer assessment score has fallen. This score is the result of a survey that is national, and reflects perceptions of faculty scholarship, visibility of students and faculty in national organizations, and the work of alumni in different locations. The people surveyed typically have no way of judging the quality of classroom teaching, the range of student activities, or contributions faculty members make to the university, the community, and the state bar association.
A second important factor in our ranking is employment rate at graduation. Only one school in USNWR’s top twenty had an employment rate of less than 90% at graduation. Clearly, we have much work to do to improve our rates. We have hired new staff in the Career Service and Public Service Center and are actively seeking an administrator at the assistant dean level.
The third factor is LSAT scores. Although our students’ undergraduate GPAs are comparable to school such as the University of Chicago (#6) and the University of Michigan (#7), our LSAT scores are a bit lower. The spreads from the 25th and 75th percentiles at those schools were 167-171 and 164-169 respectively. Our spread (159-166) is lower, at least partly because of our commitment as a public institution to enroll at least 70% Washington residents. Our pool is simply smaller than those other schools.
Regrettably, Washington residents with the highest test scores have increasingly chosen to attend other law schools. Even though tuition has increased, it is still modest compared to that at most law schools – particularly for Washington residents. However, our law school is no longer the remarkable bargain it was for so long. Additionally, other schools can often recruit strong applicants from Washington by offering more financial support than we can at present.
To improve our overall ranking, we must develop a stronger peer and public awareness of our school; attract the very best students from around the world as well as within Washington State; provide financial assistance to help those students attend; and place our graduates in judicial clerkships, firm and public interest positions throughout the nation and the globe.
Many of the UW Law School’s strengths are simply not addressed by any of the USNWR metrics:
- Many of our students already hold advanced degrees or have extensive work experience.
- A number of our students have studied or plan to study abroad; many are fluent in another language.
- Our faculty includes many truly exceptional teachers and scholars, and faculty research and publication had increased in each of the last four years.
- Both the education of students and the work of the faculty are enhanced by our excellent law library resources and the services that staff provides.
- Our new law school building, William H. Gates Hall, is not only visually spectacular, but likely the most technologically advanced law school in the country.
None of these strengths is assessed in the USNWR’s tables! Thus, the 2004-05 USNWR rankings still disappoint us. We will continue to focus on our many strengths, as well as evaluate those opportunities where we can and will improve. We will face the challenges that th e magazine’s limited ratings methodology leaves us.
As students, alumni, staff and faculty, all of us have justifiable concerns about the reputation of our school. Please know that we are all committed to building a stronger institution.
W.H. Knight
(Joe)
