Among the highlights of the ABA’s report:

U.S. News and World Report’s annual ranking of law schools overwhelmingly dominates the public discourse on how law schools compare to one another. As a result, U.S. News rankings have assumed ever increasing importance to any law school that wishes to attract students and faculty and to retain support from alumni and university leaders. The criteria U.S. News uses for rankings now has a powerful influence over the management and design of American legal education. [...] That influence is not entirely benign [...]

The U.S. News rankings are based on a methodology that emphasizes a small number of factors in order to rank all American law schools. [...] The current methodology heavily emphasizes the following: the median LSAT score of entering J.D. students; the median undergraduate grade point average (UGPA) of entering J.D. students; student/faculty ratio; dollar expenditure per student; reputation ratings of law schools determined through surveys of academics and legal practitioners; and placement data. [...] …every aspect of the U.S. News methodology has been subject to detailed analysis and criticism by scholars.

Many in legal education and the legal profession believe that law students have chosen law schools based upon U.S. News rankings rather than upon a nuanced understanding of differences among particular schools, and as a result have not attended the best school for the student, but rather the best school as ranked by U.S. News.

The report comes to the following conclusions:

1. The current methodology tends to increase the costs of legal education for students. As a recent study by the United States Government Accountability Office has suggested, the U.S. News methodology arguably punishes a school that provides a high quality education at an affordable cost.
2. The current methodology tends to discourage the award of financial aid based upon need. Because median LSAT score and median UGPA are so important to the current rankings, law schools have largely abandoned other measures of merit or need in awarding financial aid.
3. The current methodology tends to reduce incentives to enhance the diversity of the legal profession. U.S. News annually ranks law schools by student racial diversity only, and this is done in a separate ranking, but U.S. News does not incorporate this data in the main rankings methodology. Because diversity (whether racial, economic, religious, or other) is not a factor in the rankings, the promotion of diversity of the legal profession can take a back seat in law school admissions management to the promotion of a high median LSAT and UGPA.

Today, U.S. News‘ Robert Morse (director of data research for U.S. News, who also develops the methodologies and surveys for the America’s Best Colleges and America’s Best Graduate Schools annual rankings), bit back:

It’s clear that the U.S. News law school rankings have a large impact on law schools and prospective law school students. The ABA implies that the U.S. News rankings are behind rapidly rising tuitions at law schools, why law schools are offering more merit-based aid and less need-based aid, and why some law schools aren’t enrolling enough at-risk law students with far lower LSAT scores compared to the school’s typical LSAT score.

But there are other key factors behind these trends. It also must be pointed out that the ABA does not cite real evidence behind these often-repeated claims of the degree to which U.S. News exerts power over law school behavior. In other words, it’s very easy for the ABA and law school academics to blame U.S. News for many of the negative practices at law schools. Law schools and the ABA need to take far more direct responsibility for these trends.

Personally, I agree with Mr. Morse. The rising law school tuition costs, the overwhelming demand for a legal education, the way financial aid is disbursed, the diversity of a law school class (and so on) cannot be blamed solely on the U.S. News rankings–or any ranking. It is disingenuous to do so. The blame can be nicely spread out from one end of the spectrum to the other, encompassing law school applicants, U.S. News, law school deans, and even law firms. Attempting to place the blame on one or throw the blame off another only focuses on the problem, but never gets to its root or discusses a potential solution.

WHAT DO YOU THINK: Do you agree with the ABA? With U.S. News? Do you think the blame lies somewhere in between? What do you think would be better way to categorize law schools–or is any way really a “good” or “better” way?

At least, that’s what researchers are saying.

Says the article:

Law school grades are the important predictor of a lawyer’s career success—in fact they are “decisively more important” than the eliteness of the school attended, according to two law professors who have studied the issue.

University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard Sander and Brooklyn Law School visiting professor Jane Yakowitz analyzed data from four studies and concluded that the standard advice—go to the best law school that will take you—doesn’t necessarily hold true, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports.

“Since the dominant conventional wisdom says that law school prestige is all‐important, and since students who ‘trade‐up’ in school prestige generally take a hit to their school performance, we think prospective students are getting the wrong message,” they write in a new paper (PDF posted by Law Blog).

Sander told the Wall Street Journal he doesn’t know why grades are so important, but he was willing to speculate. “It could have to do with psychological factors, a level of confidence you gain from doing well that serves you well not only in school but afterward,” he said.

Sander and Yakowitz studied data from more than 40 public law schools across the country, and found that applicants tend to go to the most elite law school that will have them. But is that a good idea?

Not according to data collected in the American Bar Foundation’s After the JD study of lawyers who entered the bar in 2000, they write. It indicates that the salary boost for achieving high grades more than makes up for the salary depreciation associated with attending a lower‐ranked school. The study also found that lawyers who left law school with the lowest grades felt the least secure about their jobs.

Two other studies of lawyers practicing in Chicago in the mid-1970s and mid-1990s found that law school eliteness was associated with higher incomes in the 1970s, but that had changed in the 1990s, when class rank more accurately predicted earning power.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Is the ranking or “prestige” associated with a particular law school less important than the grades you receive there? Is being top of your class at a “lesser” school of more value to a career than attending (but not doing quite so well) at a more “renowned” law school? Is it all a matter of perspective or where you want to practice? Sound off in the comments!

Let’s start first with what the ABA’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (SLAID) has to say about LRAPs:

Loan repayment assistance programs (“LRAPs”) have emerged as a solution for relieving the debt burden of some law graduates. LRAPs provide loan repayment or forgiveness, lower interest rates on loans, or postponed payment of law school loans to graduates entering specific types of employment, usually law-related public interest jobs. Most LRAPs contain limits on the amount of income a recipient can earn while participating in such a program. There are various types of LRAPs, administered by law schools, state bar associations and foundations and federal and state governments, providing debt relief to some law graduates. The number of these programs has begun to increase recently, but still do not meet most of the need of many attorneys who would like to work in public interest.

So how exactly do these programs work? Let’s take a look at the basics for some of the different LRAPs out there:

Georgetown University Law Center

Georgetown Law students who work for U.S.-based government agencies or nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations for 10 years after graduation in a legally related capacity (JD degree must be preferred or required), and whose incomes remain less than $75,000*, can borrow the entire cost of attending law school in the form of federally-guaranteed loans and have all of their loan repayments reimbursed by Georgetown Law and the remaining principal balance forgiven by the federal government.  Georgetown Law benefits would continue on a diminishing basis for incomes exceeding $75,000.

Yale Law LRAP: The Career Options Assistance Program

In order to allow YLS alumni to choose jobs without having to worry about student loans, COAP is designed to assist graduates with their loan payments. COAP grants are calculated based on a graduate’s household income, indebtedness, and an imputed loan repayment schedule.

First, the graduate’s household income is adjusted to deduct retirement savings, childcare costs, etc. For graduates whose adjusted income is less than the “threshold” level ($60,000), COAP covers their entire imputed loan payment. Graduates who earn more than $60,000 annually are expected to contribute 25 percent of their income above $60,000 to their loan repayment. Unlike many programs, COAP grants cover not only loans for Yale Law School, but also some need-based undergraduate educational loans as well.

* A graduate with an adjusted income of $41,000 (below the $60,000 threshold) and annual imputed loan payments of $10,000 would receive the full $10,000 from COAP.

* A graduate with an adjusted income of $65,000 and the same $10,000 in annual payments would be expected to contribute $1,250 (25 percent of the $5,000 above the $60,000 threshold), and so would receive an award of $8,750.

For a listing of all schools with LRAPs and links to their respective programs and applications, you can check out the ABA’s Directory of Law School Public Interest and Pro Bono Programs.

Essentially, graduates going into an array of public service and public interest options can get help from their law schools in the form of “awards” or “forgiven loan payments.” The types of jobs that qualify for this kind of assistance vary; some schools have restrictions on the types of jobs that they will consider eligible (Georgetown Law, for example, lists Asylum Aid, The Children’s Law Center, Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., Legal Aid, Public Defender Offices, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless,  Rocky Mountain Legal Defense Fund,  ACLU,  District Attorney, and County Prosecutor as some examples of eligible employment), while others (such as Harvard Law’s Low Income Protection Plan (LIPP)) provide assistance to all graduates.

In addition to the law school-specific LRAP, the federal government also has loan repayment assistance available in a variety of forms, most recently new regulations discharging any remaining federally-guaranteed loans after 120 consecutive loan payments (10 years) made while employed in public service. This is a huge boon that, combined with the law school LRAP, can significantly lighten the load for law graduates seeking public interest or public service employment.

In addition, the armed forces also provide some assistance. The U. S. Army has an entire website devoted to educational loan management and their Loan Repayment Program, as does the Judge Advocate program.

LRAPs are a great source of assistance for those students seeking to enter into the public sector after law school. However, requirements for each law school’s program definitely vary, and you should contact the Financial Aid Office of the schools you are interested in (or currently attend) in order to determine exactly what you have to do to be eligible. Don’t just stop there, though. Make sure to also ask about federal and state-sponsored programs, as well as scholarships and grants that may be available.

Law schools pride themselves on the number of students that choose to go into public service, and they will do all they can to help these students out financially. If public service or public interest work is your dream, don’t let finances stop you. Seek help–it’s out there, and easier to find that you may think.

Let’s first start with how LSAC defines “held” scores:

[A] hold will prevent the release of your LSAT score(s) and all LSAT and Credential Assembly Service (CAS) reporting to you and to law schools. If you order publications, shipping delays may also result. If the balance due is not settled, the reporting hold will carry over to subsequent LSAC files.

A hold can be placed on your account for a number of reasons:

Stop Payments/Returned Checks/Credit Card Denial
If your credit card authorization is denied

• a hold will be placed on your file, and
• no further reporting will be possible until you pay the outstanding balance.

A credit card denial will not cancel your registration.
If you stop payment on any check, or if any check is returned

• a hold will be placed on your file,
• a stop-payment charge will be applied to your account, and
• no further reporting will be possible until you pay the outstanding balance plus the stop-payment charge.

So far, it all looks pretty normal: A hold is placed on your account if you have any past-due fees. Pretty standard. However, the students that contacted us didn’t have any outstanding fees. The one thing that they did have in common, though, were unresolved fee waiver applications. In the beginning, this didn’t stand out as a potential cause of the hold. Then we did a little research and found this (hat tip: UMass Amherst Pre-Law Advising Office Blog):

I just received the following from LSAC regarding fee waiver applications for the LSAT and LSDAS [now known as CAS]:

Holds

• The LSAC files of conditionally approved fee waiver applicants or of applicants who appeal a denial decision will be placed on hold pending final approval of the waiver or consideration of the appeal.
• Applicants whose files are on hold will not receive LSAT scores, and law school reports will NOT be sent until review of their tax forms and any applicable documentation is complete.
• If the conditional approval or the appeal is subsequently denied, the applicants will be responsible for the fees associated with the service for which they registered.
• The hold on the file will be removed upon final approval of the fee waiver or receipt of payment.

It turns out that a fee waiver application on which LSAC hasn’t yet made a decision can also put a hold on your account (and thus your scores). This can be a very frustrating thing for students who are both waiting to hear back regarding their fee waiver and wanting to get their scores. If you find yourself in this position, what can you do? You have a couple of options:

1. Wait it out. Once a decision is made on your fee waiver application (be it negative or affirmative) your scores will be made available. The only thing that could put a further hold on them is if you didn’t pay for LSAT fees in the first place, hoping to get a fee waiver. If you have any outstanding fees (LSAT, CAS), they will have to be paid before you can get your scores. PROS: You get a decision on your waiver application and your scores, all at once. CONS: You may have to wait…and wait…and wait. Some students get their score 3 days after everyone else; some students have to wait 3 weeks. LSAC can’t give you a definite timeline, and you are completely at their mercy.
2. Cancel your fee waiver application, get your scores, and then reapply. If you cancel your fee waiver application, your scores are made available within 24 hours (provided all other fees are paid). PROS:You get your scores! HOORAY! The wait is over, and you can finally rest. Except, of course, if you decide you need to take the test again. CONS: You will have to resubmit a fee waiver application, and wait however long it takes to get a decision. Also, because you’ll have to pay all the outstanding fees up front in order to get your scores, if you get approved for a fee waiver you’ll have to apply to get your fees reimbursed (which might also take a while).

Which one you choose is entirely up to you, and how patient you feel you can be. The most obvious “con” to the waiting game is that you may be denied for the fee waiver, have to pay the fees, and also deal with the fact that you waited days or weeks longer than everyone else for the same result.

We recommended that all our students contact LSAC to ask exactly what their options were. If you have a hold on your account and want to contact LSAC, you can do so via phone at 215.968.1001 (press 0 to speak to a representative). They are open Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 7:00 pm EST (from September to February); Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 4:45 pm EST (from March to August). Their busiest day is always Monday, so calling on any other day will probably get you help faster.

SOUND OFF: Were your LSAT scores held because of an outstanding fee waiver application? What did you decide to do?

List Of 2011 LSAT Dates

Saturday, February 12, 2011 8:30 AM
Monday, February 14, 2011 (Saturday Sabbath Observers) 8:30 AM

Monday, June 6, 2011 12:30 PM
Sunday, June 26, 2011 (Asia/Australia/New Zealand) 8:30 AM

Saturday, October 1, 2011 8:30 AM
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 (Saturday Sabbath Observers) 8:30 AM

Saturday, December 3, 2011 8:30 AM
Monday, December 5, 2011 (Saturday Sabbath Observers) 8:30 AM

How many times are you allowed to take the LSAT?

Generally, the LSAC allows you to take the LSAT no more than three times in any two year period (even if your scores are cancelled or otherwise unreported). There are select exceptions to this rule: “You may retake the LSAT if a law school to which you are applying requires a more recent score than any you have on record, or approves your retaking the test, and the school provides LSAC with written proof of its requirement no later than the last day of registration for the test.”

How LSAT scores are reported:

LSAC policy is as follows: “LSAC will automatically report the results of all LSATs in your file, including cancellations and absences, since June 1, 2002. The scores are averaged and also appear separately.” (Note: LSAC rounds up when calculating the average score).

Recent change to ABA policy

In 2006, the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar changed its policies, now requiring schools to report the highest LSAT scores of those students who took the test twice or more: “…beginning with the October 2006 Annual Questionnaire, which collects LSAT data on the Fall 2006 entering class, the Questionnaire will seek 75th percentile, median, and 25th percentile LSAT data based on the high score rather than the average score for matriculants who took the test more than once.”

Since schools now report their students’ highest scores to the ABA, the majority of law schools now consider only an applicant’s highest LSAT, although a small number of schools still consider the average of all scores.

Is a significant score increase possible?

We routinely hear this sort of question regarding potential score increases. It is important to understand that the LSAT is not an I.Q. test! Dramatic score increases are possible with proper preparation and the right approach. We routinely see students achieve double-digit score increases after studying the cutting-edge techniques taught in our courses, using real LSAT questions, relayed by an instructor who has scored in the 99th percentile on an actual LSAT (this is the minimum requirement for all of our LSAT instructors).

With tuition at an all-time high, more and more lawyers worry about finding work that will enable them to repay their loans. The American Bar Association reports that from 2007 to 2008, average tuition rose 6 percent at private law schools, to $34,298, and 9 percent at in-state public schools, to $16,836. Add in living expenses and pricey books, and at least 80 percent of students now rely on student loans to fund their law education. [...] …the gap between reality and expectations may now be greater than ever: Jobs are no longer a sure thing, and loans are harder to pay back. Although the job market is improving, experts caution that law school hopefuls need to carefully weigh the costs and benefits of a law degree and, whether aiming for big law or Legal Aid, estimate their personal return on investment.

The ABA Journal also chips in with some grim news:

According to a separate “Tips and Stats” article, first-year associates at large law firms can expect to make $106,500 to $131,250, down 5.1 percent from last year. At midsize firms, associates can make between $71,500 and $100,750, and at small firms they make make $49,750 to $73,000.

To make matters even tougher, tuition at all law schools has been on a steady rise and, for some schools, is now scarily close to (or even surpasses) the $50,000 a year mark. With the majority of students relying on student loans to get them through law school, many are graduating with upwards of $150,000 in debt–and with scant job prospects to help them out. In many cases, says U.S. News, it’s important for the applicant to do a thorough evaluation of both their chances and their prospects after law school:

Students themselves are critical in establishing manageable debt levels. Many do not research the real economic costs and benefits of a law degree, says Prof. Herwig Schlunk of Vanderbilt University. “It’s kind of blindly accepted that education in general, and legal education in particular, is always worth the money,” says Schlunk. “[But] there’s a lot of kids who do go to law school who really have no business, at least not as an investment matter, in going.”

Being realistic about your career path is step No. 1. Success stories from the industry’s glory days tend to fuel law students’ assumptions that they will be able to get a high-paying job, says David Stern, CEO of Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit organization that promotes careers in public interest law. “In their mind’s eye, [law students are] thinking of hitting the lottery and getting one of these $160,000-a-year jobs, and it is a fiction,” he says. “By and large, it’s just like the lottery. You’re spending a huge amount of money in the hopes of hitting the jackpot, and there’s relatively small chances, and the chances have gotten a lot smaller.”

With news like these, it seems that the question “Is it a bad time to be in law school?” only has one three-letter answer. But all is not lost. Job prospects are improving, and the universe of (lesser paid, but still incredibly rewarding) public interest still needs legal warriors in its ranks. A BigLaw job may not be in your immediate future but, if you plan carefully before and during law school, manage your debt, and become informed both about the job prospects and the job possibilities available to you once you get your J.D., you’ll do a better job of surviving the tough legal job market.

TELL US: Do you think this is a bad time to be in law school? What should law students do to make themselves viable in this (and future) economies? Where are the jobs? Are you a current law student and, if so, how do you see your employment horizon and what are you doing to make yourself irresistible to employers?

There are many intricacies to obtaining accommodations while you take the LSAT, not the least of which is making sure your disability is documented and you complete LSAC’s required Accommodations Request Packet well in advance of your test date. Many students find the process a little intimidating and hard to navigate.

With that in mind, LSAC has put together an animated demo walking students through the accommodations request process. This tutorial (found on the Accommodated Testing page of  LSAC.org) provides a step-by-step guide to applying for accommodated testing, and was prepared jointly by LSAC’s Communications and Accommodated Testing staff. Based on the questions that are most often asked, the animated screens walk users through completing the request process.

This is to be a multi-part tutorial. Part one specifically discusses completion of the Candidate and Evaluator Forms. Part two will show additional forms that some candidates use. Additional parts will become available as they are completed.

The tutorial can be found by clicking here: LSAC.org Accommodated Testing Demo.

Additional information on LSAC’s accommodated testing availability and requirements can be found on the Accommodated Testing page of LSAC.org.

A new dual degree program being launched at the University of Texas at Austin will award both a juris doctor degree and a master of science and information studies degree after a three-year program of study.

“The program results from the recognition that not only is digital information changing the practice of law, increasing reliance on digital information is changing our understanding of ownership, copyright, creativity and privacy,” the school says in a press release.

The first students will start classes this fall. They can earn the two degrees in three years by spending one summer studying, explains a university web page on the dual degree program.

This is a very interesting take on the dual-degree J.D. options, not only in the material covered, but also in the time it will take to complete. Traditionally, dual-degree J.D. programs (such as a J.D./MBA or a J.D./MA) take four years to complete; this degree can be completed in three years with only an additional summer’s study.

WHAT DO YOU THINK: Is this new J.D./MA combination destined to take off? Will more schools pick up this dual-degree option and/or the shortened dual-degree time frame?

Law school applicants traditionally use U.S. News rankings extensively during their law school selection process. The “tier” system used by U.S. News has become accepted law school applicant lingo, with phrases such as “top 30″ or “T20 school” used as a means of identifying where a school falls within the rankings system. Law school deans and professors often criticize the methodology used by U.S. News, citing that many of the criteria considered important by the publication do not often hold “real world” importance in creating quality graduates. You can see the methodology used by U.S. News by clicking here.

SOUND OFF: Do you use rankings? Do you think they are representative of a school’s quality? How should applicants use them? Would you change the way they are calculated?