AU’s Washington College of Law ranked 50th in the U.S. News and World Report’s 2011 list of best law schools.
Florida State University, Southern Methodist University and Yeshiva University tied with WCL for the No. 50 spot this year.
AU tied for No. 48 with three other schools last year, according to WCL Dean Claudio Grossman.
Grossman said this drop in ranks was due to a “different arrangement of numbers” from last year because this year no school was ranked 48th or 49th, Grossman said in an e-mail.
WCL ranked fifth in the nation for best part-time law program, an increase from the 2010 rank as No. 7.
WCL also ranked second in the nation for clinical training — or hands-on experience — behind Georgetown University.
For the international law specialty ranking, WCL moved up from eighth place in 2010 to fifth place in 2011, tying with Yale Law School and George Washington University.
The rankings were based on 12 measures of quality, including assessment scores by lawyers and judges, median LSAT scores, employment rates for graduates and bar exam passage rates.
Andrew Popper, chair of WCL’s admissions committee, said he is pleased with WCL’s performance, but he dislikes the rankings because they are “subjective and irrational.”
“This data has very little real value,” Popper said. “The foundation for this information is suspect, so why would you change an institution based on suspect information?”
Popper said the U.S. News rankings do not investigate all characteristics of an institution in its ranking, such as quality of teaching and diversity.
Yale Law School, Harvard Law School and Stanford Law School ranked as the top law programs on the list, compiled from 190 American Bar Association accredited law schools.
Among other D.C. area schools, Georgetown University ranked No. 14 on the list and George Washington University came in at No. 20.
pjones@theeagleonline.com
