The Story

Marshall-Wythe Law School Climbs in National Rankings

Mar. 29, 2008 | By Isabelle Cohen, DSJ News Editor

The namesakes of the College's affiliated law school, John Marshall and George Wythe, stand proudly in front of the law school, now ranked 30th in the US. Courtesy of Stephen Salpukas.

The College’s Marshall-Wythe School of Law is a slightly better school from last year, says U.S. News and World Report.

The school climbed to 30th from 31st spot in the rankings, tied with the University of Washington. Last year, in 31st, it tied with Ohio State and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"We are pleased to see that we went up one place but continue to view these rankings with some skepticism," said Lynda Butler, law professor and interim dean of the law school in a press release.

"This year only one point separates us from three schools ranked 27th, while two points separate us from the 26th ranked school," Butler said. �"What we do know is that the law school is more vibrant and healthy than ever.”

Marshall-Wythe is the oldest law school in the nation, with the second-oldest law professorship in the English-speaking world and a Constitutional law journal ranked fourth in the country.

The school received a record 4,561 applicants for 200 spots last year, a 7.3 percent increase, despite the nationwide drop of 1.3 in the number of applicants to law schools.

Some students assert the rankings do matter.

�"The U.S. News rankings may be methodologically flawed, but they matter,” said Arpan Sura, a second-year student at the law school. �"They influence our school's reputation, the employment of our students, and our success in recruiting new faculty and students.”

Sura wrote in an e-mail that he was surprised the school's ranking did not go down for various reasons. Among them, he thought the ranking would be worse because of the loss of various faculty members and the move of former Marshall-Wythe Dean W. Taylor Reveley, who became interim president of the College after Gene Nichol’s resignation.

Last year, Marshall-Wythe fell slightly in the rankings, a cause of concern for many. It fell four places to 31st, from its 2006 and 2005 spot at 27th.

U.S. News ranks law schools based on four criteria.

First is quality assessment, formed from a survey of judges, lawyers and �"peers,” meaning law school deans and faculty.

The peer assessment score is the most heavily weighted factor. Deans, deans of academic affairs, the chair of faculty appointments, and the most recently tenured faculty members are asked to rate programs on a scale from "marginal" to "outstanding.” The U.S. News survey had a 70 percent response rate from these people.

Secondly, the rankings are made based on school selectivity. The median LSAT scores, median undergraduate GPA and the acceptance rate are all taken into account.

Placement success is also a factor, based on employment rates for graduates and bar passage rate.

Finally, the rankings try to reflect faculty resources, expenditures per student, student/faculty ratio and library resources.

The least important factor is library resources, the total number of volumes and titles in the school’s law library, followed by bar passage rate, the rate of first-time test takers from the school compared to first-time test takers state-wide.

U.S. News also released rankings for the School of Education. Lauded last year for re-entering the top 50 at the 49th place, the College’s School of Education slipped to 51st place in this year’s survey, with a score of 59 out of 100. It is tied with Kansas State, and only 1 point separates it from the 50th place school, Temple University.

According to the U.S. News website, this year they adjusted their criteria for top education school to stress the importance of research activity.

DSJ Editors Jonna Knappenberger and Jake Nelson contributed to this story.