Rankings...........................................................

The USNEWS law school rankings came out last week. www.usnews.com

When ranking a law school USNEWS looks at LSAT scores, GPA's, and Peer Reviews. Peer review is about 40% of the whole ranking.

Ave Maria was ranked in the 4th Tier. ie somewhere between 150 and 180.

Everyone here is going crazy. I've heard, "how could we be ranked so low?" "I thought we would be ranked higher." "I'm transfering!!" "I had a full scholarship to a 2nd or 3rd tier school!!!" "I am gonna go stand infront of a bus!" "I'm calling mommy."
OK.... I made those last two up.

According to the Ave Maria fact sheet, our numbers rank with the top 20 percent of law school ranked by USNEWS. Hmm, if our numbers are similar to the top 20%, then why are we ranked with the bottom 20%?? could there have been a mix up? Maybe you are holding the magazine upside down. If you flip it, we will be in the top tier.
But hey look at the bright side, we are first in the 4th tier. (only because it is in alphabetical order)

The reason we are ranked so low is because we have low peer reviews (1.5 out of 5), low employment at graduation (37%), and a very high acceptance rate (67.3%). after all they did accept ME!
LSAT ranges from 150-160, again thanks to me. (thats the 160)

Now, one can argue that these are all due to fact that this school is only 5 years old. It is still a baby.

Low peer reviews and low employment at graduation; no one knows about the school yet. Everytime I tell someone I go to Ave Maria, they say "huh, whats that?!" I can imagine this is the same reaction of these peer reviewers, "Ave who?" aveammar of course. (by the way, I did not choose the name of this blog. Ave Maria means Hail Mary in Latin. By no means am I suggesting that people go around and start saying Hail Ammar, as much as I can see that happening.)

Also, employers are reluctant to hire someone who has graduated from a school who no one has heard of. Although, our employment rate 9 months after graduation is in the upper 80's.

Others will say our peer review is low because of the controversy surrounding whether this school will be moved to Ave Maria Town in Florida. The founder of this school is also building a Catholic Town in Florida. Some people don't like that idea because it will be ultra conservative, and "they wont sell the pill." (contraceptives). so people might be associating ave maria law school with ave maria town. they dont understand that they are two seperate entities.

One highlight of the report was our instate bar passage rate, 100%. Now that is impressive.

I imagine our ranking increasing in the coming years. Once more people get to know the school and are more familiar with the quality of education, faculty and students here those peer reviews will rise.

Our acceptance rate should decrease over the coming years because more people will WANT to come, and not enticed to come by scholarships.

I never really bought all the hype that we will be ranked high. Anyone that thought we would be ranked any higher than the third tier was clearly on crack.

But I do believe that we will improve. I heard that USNEWS' old policy was not to rank a school until it has been fully accredited for 5 years. We have only been accredited for 1 year. But apparently they have a new policy.

Oh well, no need to sit and be gloomy. You have to always look at the bright side, we still have better instate bar passage rate than U of M, aka, scUM.

till next time