In recently released rankings, the Washington College of Law tied with the University of Maryland for 48th best law school, and two of Kogod School of Business’ graduate programs made the list of the 15 best graduate programs as ranked by business students.
U.S. News and World Report included WCL and UMD in the assessments posted April 15. The list of best business graduate programs came from The Princeton Review. Professors from both schools said AU’s presence in the rankings attracts more students to the university, but questions remain about the rankings’ accuracy.
WCL’s standing
Both WCL and UMD’s School of Law received a score of 55 out of 100, based on data collected during the 2009-2010 academic year.
This data included measures of selectivity, admitted students’ scores from the Law School Admission Test, undergraduate GPA, opinions from peer institutions, graduates’ success in finding jobs and the rate of students who pass the Bar Exam.
For individual programs, WCL ranked second for clinical law, eighth for international law and seventh for its part-time law program. In each of those categories, nearby Georgetown University ranked higher than WCL, taking first place in part-time and clinical law and third in international law.
UMD ranked fifth for its part-time program — two spots ahead of WCL.
WCL Chair of the Admissions Committee Andrew Popper said WCL’s part-time law program has historically been an important part of legal education both at AU and in the Washington area.
WCL’s part-time program has had high-quality students and faculty for generations, and people in the legal profession realize that about the school, Popper said.
“I think we are fortunate, we are blessed with wonderful students and effective faculty, and hopefully the [U.S. News and World Report] ratings reflect that,” Popper said.
The rankings for part-time programs were determined based on similar criteria as the overall law school rankings but with fewer categories.
Kogod’s rankings
The Princeton Review’s Student Opinion Honors Lists recognized Kogod’s Global Management and Accounting graduate programs. The results were based on an 80-question survey administered to 19,000 current students at business schools.
This was the second time the International Business program was on this list, according to Professor and Chair of the International Business Department Frank DuBois.
DuBois said Kogod’s location in D.C. played a critical role in attracting talented students and faculty with an interest in international business.
“Everybody has good finance, everybody has good management, marketing, but global business or international business is sort of a specialization that not a lot of schools can necessarily do because of their location,” Dubois said. “Here we can do it pretty easily because we’re in Washington, D.C., which [one] could argue [is] one of the capitals of world capitalism.”
U.S. News and World Report did not rank all programs this year. In 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked AU 14th for best Public Affairs graduate programs.
In the same year, the publication ranked AU’s Public Management Administration program as number six, two spots behind Harvard University.
Also in 2008, guidance counselors across the country ranked AU as 58th best national university, giving it a score of 4.1 out of 5, according to U.S. News and World Report.
The ranking system
The validity of the methods of college ranking systems came under question last August, The Eagle previously reported.
The peer institutions’ evaluations make up 25 percent of the U.S. News and World Report ranking, according to its Web site. An August article in the online journal Inside Higher Ed looked into problems with that component of the ranking system, saying it had “haphazard responses and apathetic respondents.”
“Sometimes in life you experience processes that are arbitrary and subjective and unfair, but nonetheless, they are real and they can have an effect,” Popper said. “I would put [the] U.S. News [rankings] in that category. It is an arbitrary, subjective and perennially unfair system. It is nonetheless quite real.”
You can reach this staff writer at sparnass@theeagleonline.com.
Visit onlinecollegedegrees.net to see the rankings for online universities.
