UMKC Law drops rank, MU gains

U.S. News & World Report recently released its rankings much to the chagrin of the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law.

U.S. News weighs twelve aspects of the “overall school experience” of the ABA accredited law schools.  The survey ranks 195 schools.

Last year, UMKC ranked 113th.  The urban law school dropped to 135th this year.

While the Saint Louis University School of Law ranked 104th last year, this year, that school saw a boost to 101st.

Washington University School of Law, on the other hand, fell from 18th to 23rd.

The University of Missouri School of Law boasts the biggest gain, jumping from 107th last year, to 79th this year.

For MU, the jump marks a reversal, where that school fell 42 places in the last two years.

This year, more scrutiny was placed on each school’s job placement data, which may be cause for rank loss for some schools.

Included in the ranking criteria are:

Quality assessment, peer assessment, assessment score by lawyers/judges, median LSAT scores, median undergrad GPA, acceptance rate, placement success, employment rates for graduates, bar passage rate, faculty resources, expenditures per student, student/faculty ratio, and library resources.

According to Missouri Lawyers Weekly: Washington University released a statement on its ranking change, the first time the school has fallen in the ranks in seven years.

“The drop is a direct result of a change in the way employment placement is defined by the American Bar Association, as well as the very difficult marketplace for jobs faced by all graduates in the class of 2010.”

The magazine noted that it was tweaking its methodology, for instance noting that “there is currently much controversy over the veracity of some schools’ placement data.”

Schools report to the ABA how many graduates have jobs nine months after graduation. But beginning with the graduating class of 2011, the ABA will collect much more granular data, including whether jobs are full  or part time, long  or short term, and if reported jobs require a J.D.

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From Missouri Lawyers Weekly: Mizzou sees big boost in latest law school rankings; UMKC tumbles