Sixty law schools have been selected by preLaw magazine as the 2010 Best Value Law schools, the magazine announced Aug. 5.
“With tuition and cost of living expenses outpacing entry-level salaries, it is more important than ever for prospective law students to take into account value,” said Jack Crittenden, Editor and Founder of preLaw magazine and its sister-publication The National Jurist.
This is the first time the magazine has published the study in consecutive years. It is the first year that average indebtedness was factored into the study.
Law schools are honored if they meet four criteria: 1) their bar pass rate is higher than the state average; 2) their average indebtedness is below $100,000; 3) their employment rate nine months after graduation is 85 percent or higher; and 4) tuition is less than $35,000 a year for in-state residents.
The Fall issue of preLaw will rank the top 20 schools, and assign a letter grade (A-, B+ or B) to the other 40 honorees.
Six schools that were honored in last year’s magazine, did not make the cut this year, including top ranked North Carolina Central University.
“Unfortunately, North Carolina Central saw their employment rate drop from 87 to 82.6 percent,” Crittenden said. “The other five schools all saw their bar pass rate drop below the state average.”
Eleven of the 60 schools this year are private institutions, including Phoenix School of Law, which was awarded full ABA accreditation in June. The Fall issue of preLaw will ship in October with the top 20 schools ranked and the other 40 receiving letter grades.
The top 20 Best Value law schools in alphabetical order:
Brigham Young University (Clark) |
Florida International |
Florida State University |
Georgia State University |
Louisiana State University–Baton Rouge (Hebert) |
Northern Illinois University |
Texas Tech University |
University of Alabama |
University of Georgia |
University of Kansas |
University of Kentucky |
University of Louisville (Brandeis) |
University of Memphis (Humphreys) |
University of Mississippi |
University of Nebraska–Lincoln |
University of New Mexico |
University of North Dakota |
University of South Carolina |
University of Tennessee–Knoxville |
The 40 other honorees:
Arizona State University (O’Connor) |
Cleveland State University (Cleveland-Marshall) |
College of William and Mary (Marshall-Wythe) |
Faulkner University (Jones) |
George Mason University |
Gonzaga University |
Hamline University |
Indiana University–Bloomington (Maurer) |
Lewis & Clark College (Northwestern) |
Loyola University New Orleans |
Michigan State University |
Mississippi College |
Ohio State University (Moritz) Phoenix School of Law |
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey–Newark |
St. Mary’s University |
Temple University (Beasley) |
University of Arizona (Rogers) |
University of California–Davis |
University of Colorado–Boulder |
University of Connecticut |
University of Florida (Levin) |
University of Houston |
University of Iowa |
University of Maine |
University of Maryland |
University of Minnesota–Twin Cities |
University of Missouri–Kansas City |
University of Nevada–Las Vegas (Boyd) |
University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill |
University of Oklahoma |
University of Oregon |
University of Pittsburgh |
University of Richmond (Williams) |
University of Texas |
University of Toledo University of Tulsa |
University of Washington |
University of Wisconsin–Madison |
Wayne State |
Willamette University (Collins) |
William & Mary |