Surprising Law School Job Placement Rankings

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Summary: Take a look into another aspect of choosing a law school program by comparing job placement ratings.

Sometimes top rankings are not everything. Attending a top 10 law school will look good on your resume, especially if you desire a job at a Big Law firm, but there are other options out there. With other things like actually securing a job being of great importance, attending a school with high job placement numbers is worth looking at.

  

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Florida International University gets a low ranking of 103 by the U.S. News & World Report but receives a much better ranking for job placement. And the jobs are not working at McDonalds. They are for full-time jobs requiring JDs or are JD-advantaged.

Professor of Law Daniel Filler at Drexel University has put together a list of law schools based on their job placement. From that list we can learn a lot about which lower-ranked schools are worth considering as your law firm of choice. We will take a look at just a few of the surprises on the list:

Job Placement Rankings

Tied for second are Duke (No. 11) and Kentucky (No. 60). They have a 92 percent placement rating.

Tied for 12^th are Virginia (No. 8), California-Berkeley (No. 8), and Seton Hall (No. 65). They have a 87 percent placement ranking.

Tied for 15^th are Baylor (No. 55), Ohio State-Mortiz (No. 30), and Washington University-St. Louis (No. 18). These schools received 86 percent placement ratings.

Tried for 21^st are George Mason-Scalia (No. 45), Nebraska (No. 57), Arkansas-Fayetteville (No. 86), and SMU-Dedman (No. 45). They received an 84 percent rating.

Tied for 25^th are Boston College (No. 30), Georgia (No. 33), Tulsa (No. 86), and Vanderbilt (No. 16). They received an 83 percent job placement rating.

Have any of these schools crossed your lists? These schools clearly place an emphasis on finding their graduates jobs. The top 10 law schools are still excellent options but in case your grades are not quite up to their standards, these schools can serve as more than acceptable options if you are more interested in full-time employment after graduation. Your salary will be more modest than a Big Law job gained through a top 10 law school but any employment should be better than nothing. Besides, you will have a lot of student loans that need to be paid back.

Do you think job placement ratings should be bigger factors in determining the overall ranking of a law program? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

To learn more about law school rankings, read these articles:

• Top 10 Law Schools with the Most Transfer Students
• Top 10 Law Schools Based on Social Life Ranking
• Top 25 Cities for Law School Graduates

Photo: law.uky.edu