Love 'em or hate 'em, it's law school rankings time again

Four Texas law schools are ranked among the nation’s best 100, and six are among the most diverse, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings. The 2009 edition of the magazine’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” which includes rankings of American Bar Association-accredited law schools, hit the book stores this past weekend. It shows the University of Texas School of Law at Austin taking the highest rank – 16th place – among the Texas schools. Other Texas schools among the top 100 are 46th ranked Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in Dallas, 55th ranked Baylor University School of Law in Waco and 57th ranked University of Houston Law Center. The magazine considers the top 100 schools as its first and second tier rankings. The magazine places Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock in its third tier grouping and the remaining four ABA-accredited Texas schools in the fourth tier: South Texas College of Law in Houston, St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston and Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in Fort Worth. The magazine gives each school a diversity index, ranging from 0.0 to 1.0, based on the school’s total proportion of minority students and the mix of ethnic groups on the campus during the 2007-2008 academic year. The diversity index for Thurgood Marshall is 0.67, the highest among the schools. African-American students, the school’s largest minority population, make up 47 percent of the school’s student body. Other Texas schools on the most diverse list are St. Mary’s University with a diversity index of 0.51 and UT Austin with a diversity index of 0.47 for their Hispanic student populations of 24 percent and 16 percent, respectively; the University of Houston Law Center with a diversity index of 0.45 and South Texas with a diversity index of 0.41, both with 11 percent Asian-American students; and the Dedman School of Law with a diversity index of 0.39 with 10 percent Asian-American students. The magazine also ranks the 10 schools considered the best by law faculty for teaching certain specialties. UH Law Center is ranked second for health and seventh for intellectual property law; UT Austin is in a three-way tie for tenth in tax law and a three-way tie for ninth in trial advocacy. Two other Texas schools are also ranked among the best for trial advocacy: South Texas takes sixth place, and Baylor is tied for eighth.
-- Jeanne Graham

Comments

[Luke Gilman, Houston]

Houston at 57? Actually Baylor and Houston are both ranked at 55 along with Florida State and Cardozo.