A press release from Kaplan says that 32 percent of respondents in a survey said that law school rankings are the most important factor when it comes to evaluating potential law schools to attend. They responded to the question of “What is most important to you when picking a law school to apply to?” From the responses, 86 percent of those surveyed said that when it comes to deciding where to apply, law school rankings are ‘very important’ or ‘somewhat important.’
In another Kaplan survey, called the Kaplan Bar Review, recent law school graduates answered the question of “Which of the following factors would you tell prospective law students should be the most important when picking where to apply?” Seventeen percent of those who answered selected law school rankings as the best answer. Half of the respondents said that a law school’s ability to place graduates in jobs or how affordable the school is should be most important.
Out of the pre-law students surveyed, 13 percent of them named affordability/tuition as the most important factor and 8 percent said the job placement numbers for schools as the top deciding factor.
“Going to law school is a significant investment of both time and money, and those who have gone through the process are affirming a rational conclusion that at the end of three years of hard work, it’s important to leave law school with a job and as little debt as possible,” said Jeff Thomas, director of pre-law programs, Kaplan Test Prep, according to a press release from Kaplan. “Our advice to LSAT students has always been that while rankings can play a useful role in helping them decide where to apply, they should look closely at other statistics, including how many of a school’s graduates have found a job in the legal field and how much debt their graduates accumulate.”