Our Rank and File
Last night when I returned to Berkeley someone IMed me this new US News rankings of law schools where Boalt is now tied for 11th. I wanted to postpone any significant discussion of the rankings as a whole and this new one in particular until Wednesday, once my final brief is turned in, but since there's already some discussion in the blawgsphere (see e.g., here and here), might as well get it off my chest now.
WARNING: I couldn't care less about the rankings themselves. There are smarter people out there to digest that. I'm more interested in how the *cough* nuts and bolts of this school affect its position with respect to other schools. Since admit day is fast approaching us, I think it is best to offer my opinions now instead of later. So if you're interested in a discussion of the US rankings, its methods (sidenote: to date, I have not seen anyone frown upon the incorrect use of the term methodology, which ought to mean the study of methods), etc., this is not the place. With that, I'll base my thoughts on specific components of the overall score.
SELECTIVITY
This immediately caught my eye. We have a 10% admit rate? That's awfully low. Compare this to the top three, Yale - 6.5%, Harvard - 11.3%, and Stanford 7.7%. This almost looked like an error at first glance, but I did more checking, and sure enough, we do get over 7000 apps a year EASILY. Cornell, a school we are tied with, makes it to the high 4000s. In addition, Cornell has to admit as many students as Boalt to achieve an incoming class that's about 100 less than ours. This all adds up to greater selectivity for Boalt.
This also explains the effect that I witnessed when I was visiting schools around this time last year, i.e. markedly greater variety of backgrounds among Boalt admits. Have I seen every other law school in the country? No, of course not. But I can safely say we have a lot fewer people who graduated in the early 2000s and worked at a NY or DC firm as a paralegal for a couple of years.
FACULTY RATIO
Unacceptably low at time the numbers were taken for the rankings. By the end of this year the ratio SHOULD come down, but I'm not sure if it will do so sufficiently.
EMPLOYMENT
The numbers are really low or really high depending on what it is compared to [ending with a preposition, I know]. 89% employed after graduation is really high when compared to, oh let's say history Ph.Ds. But compared to the law schools around us in the rankings, this is drastically low. I think there MIGHT be two explanations for this.
1. Student-body. The right Non-profit with the espresso machine in the lobby is hard to find. We do our best thank you very much. If this means screwing the rankings, well the hell with it.
2. Career Services. If you ever need an exercise in self-help, then 12 Boalt Hall is the place for you. This is the gist of what I remember about the career services office of another school I visited. "We baby you through every stage of your 1L summer job search." Well not in the big leagues that is Boalt. Here, you walk on the hot coals yourself. There is not a question you can have that cannot be answered by a wink and a nod towards the many volumes of career guides on their shelves. The only thing missing is a multi-level, number-based menu system announced by the receptionist as you walk in (see Capital One ads for visual).
I can easily see some alumnus/a/i flaming me for being a brat who is not self-reliant and really doesn't know the half of it about doing things yourself. To which I respond, I don't care if you took notes on slate, we still need to upgrade and change with the times rather than stubbornly clinging to ways just because the Class of '13 did it that way. Beginning today, every classroom in Boalt is equipped with wireless access and outlets for laptops. Why couldn't this be done sooner? That was, easily, the biggest obstacle to overcome in deciding to come to Boalt. I'm used to certain amenities like electricity. Same thing with career services. I think that office needs to be more (buzzword alert) proactive in reaching out to students just because it's the right thing to do.
See no. 1 above for my view on the effect this shift will have on Boalt's ranking.
WARNING: I couldn't care less about the rankings themselves. There are smarter people out there to digest that. I'm more interested in how the *cough* nuts and bolts of this school affect its position with respect to other schools. Since admit day is fast approaching us, I think it is best to offer my opinions now instead of later. So if you're interested in a discussion of the US rankings, its methods (sidenote: to date, I have not seen anyone frown upon the incorrect use of the term methodology, which ought to mean the study of methods), etc., this is not the place. With that, I'll base my thoughts on specific components of the overall score.
SELECTIVITY
This immediately caught my eye. We have a 10% admit rate? That's awfully low. Compare this to the top three, Yale - 6.5%, Harvard - 11.3%, and Stanford 7.7%. This almost looked like an error at first glance, but I did more checking, and sure enough, we do get over 7000 apps a year EASILY. Cornell, a school we are tied with, makes it to the high 4000s. In addition, Cornell has to admit as many students as Boalt to achieve an incoming class that's about 100 less than ours. This all adds up to greater selectivity for Boalt.
This also explains the effect that I witnessed when I was visiting schools around this time last year, i.e. markedly greater variety of backgrounds among Boalt admits. Have I seen every other law school in the country? No, of course not. But I can safely say we have a lot fewer people who graduated in the early 2000s and worked at a NY or DC firm as a paralegal for a couple of years.
FACULTY RATIO
Unacceptably low at time the numbers were taken for the rankings. By the end of this year the ratio SHOULD come down, but I'm not sure if it will do so sufficiently.
EMPLOYMENT
The numbers are really low or really high depending on what it is compared to [ending with a preposition, I know]. 89% employed after graduation is really high when compared to, oh let's say history Ph.Ds. But compared to the law schools around us in the rankings, this is drastically low. I think there MIGHT be two explanations for this.
1. Student-body. The right Non-profit with the espresso machine in the lobby is hard to find. We do our best thank you very much. If this means screwing the rankings, well the hell with it.
2. Career Services. If you ever need an exercise in self-help, then 12 Boalt Hall is the place for you. This is the gist of what I remember about the career services office of another school I visited. "We baby you through every stage of your 1L summer job search." Well not in the big leagues that is Boalt. Here, you walk on the hot coals yourself. There is not a question you can have that cannot be answered by a wink and a nod towards the many volumes of career guides on their shelves. The only thing missing is a multi-level, number-based menu system announced by the receptionist as you walk in (see Capital One ads for visual).
I can easily see some alumnus/a/i flaming me for being a brat who is not self-reliant and really doesn't know the half of it about doing things yourself. To which I respond, I don't care if you took notes on slate, we still need to upgrade and change with the times rather than stubbornly clinging to ways just because the Class of '13 did it that way. Beginning today, every classroom in Boalt is equipped with wireless access and outlets for laptops. Why couldn't this be done sooner? That was, easily, the biggest obstacle to overcome in deciding to come to Boalt. I'm used to certain amenities like electricity. Same thing with career services. I think that office needs to be more (buzzword alert) proactive in reaching out to students just because it's the right thing to do.
See no. 1 above for my view on the effect this shift will have on Boalt's ranking.
posted by Armen Adzhemyan at 6:37 PM
6 Comments:
Selectivity numbers fit with my experience. I was rejected at Stanford & Yale, accepted at Harvard & Boalt, and came to Boalt.
As for employment numbers, I'm guessing it is connected to the ridiculously high percentage of Boalt grads who do public interest work. I don't know how they calculate the employment numbers, but if not all the policy-related jobs count that would make a big difference. Also, the public interest sector is just a different market than other law markets - though I'm not sure how this would show up in the rankings.
On the Market, I'm assuming Blogger is being a pain in the ass as per usual and that's why you double posted the comment, I just went ahead and deleted the second seeing no difference between the two.
I hate blogger.
It's funny how the Career Services office experience is so universal. They sent out an e-mail survey to students last year, and I used the opportunity to recount a particularly egregious "I can't even be bothered to get off my fat ass and point you to the right directory on the shelf" moment to which I had been subjected. Their reply was either incredibly disingenous or incredibly unbelievable, but they expressed such dismay about my perception of their ineffectuality, asking me to come in and talk more about it because this is exactly what they were trying to avoid, that I didn't know how to respond. In fact, I never did, so I guess I'm contributing to the problem. But the combination of facts that (1) all Boalt students find that the OCS is entirely useless and (2) they seem to have no understanding of this whatsoever, is baffling. And sad. And why we deserve to get our rating dinged for it.
I should add that I never expected much help from them in my job search, and sought help infrequently and only for minor things, which makes it even worse.
Not actually a misuse of "methodology," but good to know someone is taking that stuff about the importance of greek & latin roots seriously. Check the definition.
Since blogger comments are acting up, I'm taking the liberty of posting these comments about career services from an e-mail I received.
" The questionaire is usually done the day of graduation, somewhere near where you return your cap & gown... and they offer some sort of "gift" if you fill out the questionairre. I filled out the questionaire and received my nifty Boalt Hall Class of XXXX business card holder. Clever, no? Technically, I had a job upon graduation... but...screw US News, I wrote that I wasn't employed."
gq, "d'oh" is now part of the Oxford English Dictionary also. I think this is more comparable to "flammable" being an acceptable word because there are too many idiots among us. I never pass up a chance to trumpet the cause of the ancients. :)
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