Accepted Admissions Almanac

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See you at the Accepted Admissions Almanac.

And Yet Another Opinion on Legal Job Market, the Rankings, and Law School

William D. Henderson is an associate professor at Indiana University School of Law -- Bloomington and Andrew P. Morriss is the H. Ross and Helen Workman Professor of Law and Business at University of Illinois College of Law. They have also just published a study of law school graduate income, debt, and job opportunity at different law schools and considered the impact of ranking on that outcome. It is a fascinating, albeit somewhat dense, article that I recommend to those of you applying to law school, particularly if you are not aiming for the top 25 schools. Here are a few excerpts:

• "For the vast majority of students who are not admitted to top-tier national law schools, these figures lead to a simple conclusion: Slavishly following the U.S. News rankings will not significantly increase one's large-firm job prospects. And the excess debt that students incur is likely to undermine their career options."
• "By focusing on price rather than rankings, they will have the financial freedom to pursue jobs that will build valuable professional skills and mentoring relationships or leave the law altogether, without debt, to pursue other life ambitions."
• "We don't rank; neither should prospective students. Within regional markets, many schools will have similar outcome profiles. The question to ask is whether marginally better employment outcomes -- for example, 12 percent large-firm employment versus 6 percent -- is worth the additional law school debt."

Law Admissions: Look at the job market

According to Law.com "All together, the top 20 law schools that NLJ 250 law firms relied on most to fill their first-year associate ranks sent 54.9 percent of their graduates to those firms, compared with 51.6 percent in 2006."

Obviously that does not mean that the remaining 55.1 percent were all unemployed, but if you want to see a quick snapshot of where graduates of a particular school find (and don't find) jobs, please see the NLJ's graph of law school graduate employment trends.

For a succinct commentary on the full report, please see "Top Law Schools Tighten Their Hold on NLJ 250 Firms."

While the Law.com articles reflect last year's strong economy, The Wall St. Journal presents a less rosy picture,  probably because it reports current market conditions in "Law Firms Curtail Associate Programs as Economy Slows."  This article mirrors the the economy's downshift in the last six months.

Six months ago journalists speculated that new associate salaries at top firms may hit $200K annually. This article reveals layoffs, rescinded offers, postponed start dates for new lawyers graduating in June, and shrinking programs for summer associates. It even discusses humane working hours for currently employed first-year associates at some big firms heavily dependent on M&A, private equity, and real estate transactional business.

The silver lining here: most of the top firms seem to prefer staggering start dates than widespread rescission of offers or layoffs, so clearly they anticipate and want to be ready for a rebound.

In my post on "Reaction to Law School Rankings," I commented that I found "There are Only Two Kinds of Law Schools" by Professor Cameron Stracher of New York School of Law to be the most thoughtful. He maintains there are only two tiers of law schools, "those where students decide which firms they want to interview at and those where the firms decide. Most law schools belong to the latter group."  Perhaps the National Law Journal data supports his position.

Reaction to Law School Rankings

Reactions to last month's 2009 US News Grad School Rankings, particularly for law schools range from the thoughtful to the laughable:

• Over my morning cup of tea, I read "Dropping 23 Spots in U.S. News: Dean of Buffalo Law Responds"  in the WSJ, in which Buffalo’s interim dean, Makau Mutua comments on his school's dizzying drop in the rankings. Robert Morse of US News responds to his comments.
• That piece led me to "Law Schools Shouldn't Grub for Rankings" by a Yale 1L who feels that law deans pay too much attention to rankings.
• I also stumbled across the WSJ's  "Tennessee Law Prof Lampoons Responses to U.S. News Rankings."  While Prof. Stein is officially spoofing administrative reaction to the rankings, his piece closely resembles reality.
• Finally, thoughtful commentary on Law.com: "There are Only Two Kinds of Law Schools". Professor Cameron Stracher of New York School of Law divides law schools into two categories. "Those where students decide which firms they want to interview at and those where the firms decide." Sobering perspective.

Applicants put way too much emphasis on small differences in overall rankings. They should be looking at ability to get a job after graduation, bar passage rates, overall student satisfaction, the actual program at a time when many law schools are becoming innovative, and a host of other factors. They tend to focus on the rankings which too frequently are a crutch that replaces research into a program and its strengths and weaknesses.  The data behind the rankings provides some of that info, but the applicants should go deeper to really understand the different programs.

At the same time, the frequently two-faced and sometimes defensive reaction of law schools to the rankings is spineless. Schools brag about their ranking to alumni and prospective students -- if it goes up. They respond defensively if they go down. How about examining them with a degree of objectivity? Perhaps the rankings provide clues to areas in which a school needs to improve. If they are meaningless, then schools shouldn't brag about them or cooperate with them regardless of the result.

Rankings should neither be the sole source of feedback for schools nor determinative in applicant or administrative decision-making. While I welcome a constructive examination of ranking results on the part of law schools, as Michael Seringhaus, the Yale 1L quoted above, wrote, law school deans should not "grub" for placement.

Admissions Tip: Applying After Being Laid Off

BusinessWeek this week screams on p. 007 "34,000: Estimated number of jobs lost on Wall Street in the past nine months."

What if you were a holder of one of those no-longer-existing jobs and planned to apply this fall for matriculation in Fall 09? Does the layoff doom your application?

No. Not at all. Admissions committee members read BusinessWeek and a host of other periodicals that blare the same numbers, gloom, and doom. They  know you are not responsible for a recession (I said it), turmoil in the credit markets, inaccurate risk management at the top of major financial institutions, and the bust that so frequently follows a boom.

But you are responsible for your reaction to the lay off.  If you quickly succeed in obtaining a new position that moves you closer to your long-term goal or that allows you to take on more responsibility and show growth, that's great. But obtaining a good job may be difficult in this business climate. Keep the following in mind:

1. You may have to adjust or alter your career plans to meet market conditions.  Risk management has suddenly become a growth industry. Perhaps your number crunching skills can be put to good use in this suddenly hot field.
2. If your layoff starts to drag on, don't plop yourself in front of the TV, video game, or sudoku book. Do something. Take up a new hobby. Learn new skills. Participate in a community service active. Volunteer for a candidate. (There's more than enough of them this year in the US.) Transform your layoff into a growth experience with initiative, energy, and optimism. 

Either of these responses will allow you to show the resilience and backbone schools value. In addition, by taking these steps you will learn new skills, develop marketable talents, and demonstrate the personal qualities schools (and employers) admire.

Tomorrow's Post: My Stab at MBA Admissions Punditry.

US News Grad Rankings Are Out

The US News released its 2008 Grad School Rankings today. I'm going to list the top ten for business school, law school, and medical school and provide links to the ranking methodology for each category. For other graduate specialties, please visit the US News site.

Business School Rankings and methodology
1. Harvard
1. Stanford
3. Wharton
4.  MIT Sloan
4. Northwestern Kellogg
4. Univ. of Chicago
7. Dartmouth Tuck
7. UC Berkeley Haas
9. Columbia
10. NYU Stern

Law School Rankings
1. Yale
2. Harvard
2. Stanford
4. Columbia
5. NYU
6. UC Berkeley
7. Univ. of Chicago
7. Penn
9. Northwestern
9. Univ. of Michigan
9. Univ. of Virginia

( I am not including a link to the law school methodology because as I am writing the link provided is a bad link.)

Medical School Rankings (Research)  and Methodology
1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Washington U (St. Louis)
4. Penn
5. UCSF
6. Duke
6. Univ. of Washington
8. Stanford
9. UCLA
9. Yale

A few caveats: My strong recommendation is to use the rankings as a library of raw data  conveniently compiled in one location and not as a tried and true guide of educational quality. They are not the latter. They are the former. To the extent you are going to use the rankings as a guide to school reputation and brand value, you must understand the methodology behind them and what they are measuring. Be cognizant of the differences between what is important to you and what is important to the rankings.

A few observations on the rankings themselves:

1. There are many ties in the rankings, which implies that the differences in reputation are almost imperceptible when talking about closely ranked programs. For example the difference between being "in the top ten" and out of the the top ten (i.e. #11) for MBA programs is 1 point,  for the top law schools is 2 points, and for the top medical schools is 1 point. Don't get hung up on these differences.
2. The "top ten" changes little from year to year. In most cases, if you compare these rankings to the 2007 version, it looks as if US News just reshuffled the deck a little.

For more on rankings, please see:

• Rankings: Controversy and Magazine Sales
• Thoughtful Dean Looks at Rankings
• Law School Admissions: Study Says Rankings Influence Decision Makers

Personal Statement Tip: Pick Yourself Up and Applaud

Essay questions dealing with failure,  risk, mistakes, and difficult interactions or conflict cause applicants to cringe, squirm, and bite their nails. After all, you want to show yourself succeeding and conquering the world in your application essays and personal statements.  Not falling down. 

Schools ask these questions because they want to see how you get up, how you grow following setback. Do you smile and try again? Do you view the stumble as temporary? Move on? Applaud effort? Accept a helping hand when offered?

A video of my seventeen-month-old granddaughter when she finally decides to walk exemplifies a positive attitude to risk, challenge, and yes even failure. She chose to start walking at the end of a two and a half week visit, minutes before going through security at Los Angeles International Airport. My husband and I were letting her crawl around to tire herself out before the long plane ride and her parents were finishing up with ticketing and luggage, when she just stuck her rump in the air, straightened up, and started to ... walk. ( I caught the event on my camera phone so the quality isn't great.  Babies never perform on cue.)

Despite a lot of practice holding onto fingers and furniture before this grand and sudden experiment, success was neither immediate nor guaranteed. But she tried and tried again. She applauded despite falling. And she accepted big brother's hand when he ran over to help her. I hope she will always display the determination and resilience one sees here.

Similarly you want to display resilience in your essays and applications. I have seen clients and others portray setbacks as growth opportunities and occasions of achievement.  They definitely acknowledge a "blew it" moment, but their "failure" essay screams success, accomplishment, resilience, and character.

As always, don't just talk about "resilience." Demonstrate it with anecdotes that show you picking yourself up, improving, acknowledging effort, persisting, and ultimately succeeding in one way or another. 

You want to portray those qualities in your application.  They will convince the committees that you can indeed conquer the world. Or at least straighten up after a stumble.

Whom Do You Want Working for You?

Inside Higher Ed continues to report on conflicts of interest involving consultants who work for colleges or graduate schools and admissions staff members who moonlight as admissions consultants. Its most recent piece, "Private Counselors Who Won't Double Dip" spotlights the position of the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants, an organization that Accepted belongs to and that I am president of.

The article cites AIGAC as the admissions organization that has taken a clear stand on dual employment: It bans what the article calls "double dipping."

It quotes me in giving the basis for AIGAC's unequivocal position:

Linda Abraham, president of the association and also of a private counseling business called Accepted.com, said that the group wants to be very clear about the philosophy behind its ban. “You can’t have two masters when their interests may be in conflict,” she said. “As an adviser to applicants, we have to try to have one employer, the applicant.”

Life is full of conflicts and clashing interests. Adding  the impossible task of balancing the interests of client applicants and employers who just happen to be deciding  whether to accept those applicants adds a layer of complexity and ethical challenge that I don't want to face. In fact, I don't even want the appearance of facing it.

When you seek advice, you should not have to wonder if your trusted adviser and mentor has your interest as primary or that of the school you are applying to. If you choose to seek Accepted's help, or the help of other AIGAC members, you'll know that your interest in our primary concern.

I am proud to be a member of AIGAC, an new organization that is proving to be a leader in defining standards on dual employment and conflicts of interest in admissions. I urge other graduate admissions consultants who share AIGAC's vision and values to join. I encourage applicants to seek out AIGAC's growing list of members when choosing an admissions consultant.

Law School Enrollment Holds Steady

According to the American Bar Association law school enrollment for the JD degree in 2007-08 showed only very slight changes from the previous year. "Total enrollment for J.D. degrees increased from 141,031 to 141,433 from the academic year starting fall 2006 to the year starting fall 2007.  The increase in first-year enrollment was smaller, from 48,937 to 48,964 or only .1 percent."

For more statistics on legal education including enrollment breakdowns by gender and ethnicity, tuition info, and stats on degrees awarded, please see the ABA's Legal Education Statistics.

UVA Law Has New Dean: Paul G. Mahoney

According to the UVA web site:

Paul G. Mahoney, a University of Virginia law professor, has been appointed the 11th dean of the School of Law, UVA President John T. Casteen III announced today.

Mahoney, 49, an expert in corporate law who joined the law faculty in 1990, will serve as the Arnold H. Leon Professor of Law. His appointment will be effective July 1.

As academic associate dean from 1999 to 2004, Mahoney administered the school's curriculum and academic policies. He has won an All-University Outstanding Teaching Award, the Law School’s Traynor Award for excellence in research, and the Corporate Practice Commentator’s award for top corporate and securities law articles. Mahoney also is one of only five faculty members to hold the most eminent chair at the Law School, the David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professorship, and the youngest to have the title. Mahoney will be the ninth of 11 deans to be selected from the Law School's faculty

For more on Mahoney's appointment, please see "Paul G. Mahoney—Scholar, Teacher, and Corporate Law Expert—Named University of Virginia Law School Dean."