Princeton Review Law School Ranking: Best (and Worst) Career Preparation

Last week, I blogged the lists of the Top 10 law schools in eleven categories posted on Princeton Review's web site in connection with its publication of the 2008 edition of Best 170 Law Schools.  The rankings are the result of Princeton Review's survey of 18,000 students at the 170 law schools, along with school statistics provided by administrators.

With the help of my assistant, I have extracted from the individual profiles of the 170 law schools all of the available data to rank the schools in six categories.  Each day this week, I will report on one of the ranking categories.

Career Rating:  How well the law school prepares its students for a successful career in law, on a scale of 60 to 99. The rating incorporates school-reported data and the average responses of law students at the school to a few questions on our law student survey. We ask law schools for the average starting salaries of graduating students, the percentage of graduating students who find employment after graduation, and the percentage of students who pass the bar exam the first time they take it. We ask students about how much the law program encourages practical experience; the opportunities for externships, internships, and clerkships; and how prepared to practice law they feel after graduating.

Here are the law schools with the highest and lowest career ratings (an asterisk indicates that the school's administrators did not supply the Princeton Review with the requested statistical information) [click on chart to enlarge]: