One relatively easy way to move up is by more closely tracking students' job placements after graduation. The factor can make a significant difference in ranking, and schools that thoroughly report where their students go -- and thus show a higher percentage of graduates who are employed both at graduation and nine months after -- can gain an advantage over those whose data are incomplete.
McAllister, at the University of Kansas, attributes much of his school's decline in the rankings to its failure to keep close tabs on that information. Next year, the school will put more resources toward it, he said.
A big reason the University of New Mexico School of Law shot up 30 points to 69th place was its improved employment tracking, said Dean Suellyn Scarnecchia.
At graduation time last year, the school took a more "methodical approach" to tracking job placement.
A closer watch on job placement after graduation also was one of the chief reasons Tulane University Law School jumped 15 points in the survey to 41st, said Dean Lawrence Ponoroff. For this year's ranking, the school directed its career counselors to find out "more aggressively" where students went to work after they graduated, he said, adding that when the publication released the rankings, student morale was high.
Now if SWLAW only had employed graduates to keep track of SWLAW could be well on its way to second tier status.
Would the task of placing graduates into jobs and tracking them fall on Career Services and Dean Greener? If so, should I be confident?
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