UT law school slips in national ranking
4/1/2005The University of Toledo's college of law has lost its brief spot as a second-tier law school, according to the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings.
The magazine placed UT back in the third of four tiers, dropping it from last year's five-way tie for 94th place out of 177 law schools to an unknown spot in the third tier.
Comparing UT with other law schools at the bottom of the second tier, law school Dean Phillip Closius estimated yesterday that UT fell about 10 or 11 spots but is still at the top of the third tier.
The dean said the college dropped in two subjective categories that are based on a school's reputation. Judges in those areas included deans and faculty members at each school and also lawyers and judges.
"Obviously, we're not happy about it but, as I say, we're really convinced that we're building a better school, that we're on the right track, and over time, what we're doing is going to be reflected in those categories," Mr. Closius said.
Increases at UT were seen in areas including admissions, placement, and bar passage rates.
For example, nearly 95 percent of the school's 2003 class had jobs within nine months of graduation.
Yale University was listed as the top law school, while the University of Michigan tied for eighth place with the University of Virginia.
The magazine provides numeric rankings for only the top 100 accredited law schools that make up the top two tiers. The remainder of the schools are only listed alphabetically in the other two tiers.
Also in northwest Ohio, Ohio Northern University's law school in Ada remained in the fourth tier of the 179 ranked law schools.
Results of the annual survey will hit newsstands on Monday but should be available online today.
The magazine analyzes other graduate programs as well, including business, education, engineering, and medicine. Other programs, including social sciences and humanities, which appeared this year, are generally ranked about every three years.
New rankings of doctoral programs in criminology, PharmD programs, and legal-writing programs were new this year, according to Richard Folkers, a spokesman for the magazine.
In the psychology specialities program area, Bowling Green State University ranked third in the nation for its industrial and organizational psychology doctorate program.
Officials there have said that program graduates typically join university faculties or corporations, where they help employers choose employees and design programs to improve workplace performance and morale.
That program jumped a notch from its most recent fourth spot in the same ranking. Michigan State University and the University of Minnesota were ranked in first and second place, respectively.
Contact Kim Bates at:
kimbates@theblade.com
or 419-724-6074.