Should law schools publish data on job placement and starting salary for each graduate?
In many ways, law schools are trade schools. While law schools present aggregate breakdowns, they do not provide details on the job location and salary of an individual graduate. The paucity of official hiring and salary data for each graduate begs the question: do prospective students really know what they’re getting into in terms of “return on investment” when they commit to a particular school?
All that may change soon.
In July, Law School Transparency, a new nonprofit organization, sought information from 199 ABA-accredited schools on every law graduate. The LST asked schools to provide a detailed list of jobs (employer type, employer name, title, credentials, full-time/part-time, office location, salary source, daily) and a salary list (type of employer, office location, full time). /part time, salary). The LST explains: “This website is intended to become a clearinghouse for employment data from ABA-approved law schools.”
The LST will post the results on its website, as well as correspondence from schools resulting from the group’s data request, within 60 days of the September 10 deadline for responses.
However, the National Law Journal reports that only 11 schools met the deadline, of which only three (American University Washington College of Law, University of Michigan Law School, and Vanderbilt University Law School) said they were considering releasing the requested information. . Some colleges declined to respond citing the violation of student privacy. Ave Maria School of Law is one of the first schools that agreed to provide the data.
Northwestern, while declining to comply with the LST request, indicated that Forbes.com recently requested similar employment-related information. Apparently, Forbes will use your survey responses for the new law school ranking list.
If anything, this push toward presenting individual metrics rather than overall statistics starts a dialogue about an important issue. Perhaps in light of the recent economic downturn and the substantial costs of legal education, clarity about law school job outcomes and graduate starting salaries is more important than ever. What do you think?
-Lilly Golden, Examville Blog Contributor