Why? Is it a shallow and transparent admission that law school rankings are ultimately little more than superficial national name recognition and the people sorting these things are the type of clueless sinecures who wind up on blue ribbon task forces?
Not entirely! The Star-Telegram has the
[I]nside, the school — acquired by A&M from Texas Wesleyan in 2013 — has gone from unranked to one of the top 100 in the country, hiring more than 25 new professors in the last two years, improving job placement numbers and putting itself on a competitive playing field with well-established law schools in the state, such as SMU, the University of Houston and Baylor.Surely, the Dallas legal community has already adjusted its hiring networks accordingly.
...
“While the reputation score went up simply because of the name, I think [Dean] Morriss did actually improve the academic caliber of the school,” [Demigod Distinguished Prof. Brian] Leiter said. “Lateral hires are certainly the right investment to make over the long haul. They’re already known quantities. People take notice if they see those people going to Texas A&M. They go, ‘Oh, things must be happening there.’ ”
The way Leiter sees it, A&M is already in a position to at least be competitive with SMU in attracting prospective law students to North Texas.
Perhaps best of all is the school's charity. They magnanimously let a third of the would-be class pursue the million-dollar dream elsewhere:
A&M’s enrollment has decreased from 774 in 2013, when it acquired the school, to 484 last year, according data from the American Bar Association.Watch out, Texas...
As an unrelated aside, are YOU still running a no-name law school? Drop that zero and get yourself a BRAND! All sorts of good affiliations still available. Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, MIT, CIT, Central Florida, Clemson, Colorado State, San Marcos, Middle Tennessee St., Cal State Whatever, Mississippi St, Providence, Grand Canyon, Utah State, Butler, Delaware, Nevada-Reno, Boise State, Army, Navy, Air Force, Wossamatta, PCU, you name it! Why is your school still named after John Marshall like a loser?
It's all about name brand and affiliation. Also, if PCU gets one, can Jeremy Liven reprise his role and return as a law professor?
ReplyDeleteI graduated Texas A&M, back in the day. It still saddens me to see my school climb on board the law school scam train, as I thought they were better than that.
ReplyDeleteSMU, Baylor and even TU have better networks and track records, even though A&M did will on the bar passage rate this year. A&M should stick to its roots where it does well (e.g. engineering, biological sciences), and stop trying to do flashy-flashy LA Law, as if that makes you part of the cool-kids group somehow. A&M already has a lot to be proud of, don't taint it with this.
Oh well. All about the Benjamins, yo, just like UNT.
Why would anyone-other than incredibly lazy Texas journalists-use Leiter as an expert on anything?
ReplyDeleteWho the fuck cares if it is ranked 92nd or 112th, 300th or what? Texas never needed this law school and it should have died an ugly death instead of getting taken over by the A&M system. At least enrollment is going down--not necessarily a good thing, but less of a bad thing.
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