BERKELEY – The University of California Berkeley School of Law and Stanford University of Law have dropped in their rankings in a Princeton Review study of graduates' ability to gain employment, but still show strong numbers in reports required by the American Bar Association (ABA).
While information released by the Princeton Review shows the University of California (UC) Berkeley School of Law falling from seventh to 10th in its ability for students to get a position in law after graduating from the school, the university points to information compiled by The National Association of Law Placement (NALP) as required by the ABA.
In the findings by the NALP, there is very little variance in the percentage of UC Berkeley School of Law graduates who find jobs nine months after graduation. Year after year, the ranking moves as little as three percent with 93.17 percent of graduates from the school finding work within nine months after graduation in 2015. This number was 96.52 percent for the class of 2014 and 93.17 percent in the class of 2013.
When it comes to UC Berkeley School of Law graduates finding jobs at a law firm, the NALR reports that 61.01 percent of the class of 2015 did so – an increase from 56.32 percent in 2014. For judicial clerkships, 14.28 percent of the 2015 graduating class found jobs in this field within nine months of graduation. This percentage was 16.97 percent for the class of 2014 and 10.71 percent for the class of 2013.
“As you'll see, these numbers vary by very small amounts over the years,” Susan Gluss, communications deputy director at UC Berkeley School of Law told the Northern California Record. “In fact, compared to 2013, a higher percentage of 2015 graduates received coveted judicial clerkships. And the number of law school funded jobs dropped by more than half, with a higher percentage of grads taking law firm positions.”
The Princeton Review also moved Stanford University of Law from its position in fourth place to seventh as a school where the odds of getting a job in law were best after graduation. Stanford University of Law also pointed to data required by the ABA. In 2015, 55.3 percent of the 2015 class were employed in law firms and another 27.4 percent were serving in a judicial clerkship. This is an increase from the 2014 class that had 49.4 percent finding a position in a law firm after graduation and a slight decrease for judicial clerkships positions at 33.3 percent.
In its study, the Princeton Review named the University of Pennsylvania as the top school for finding a job in law after graduation again for the second year and named New York University of Law School and University of Chicago Law School in the Nos. two and three spots, respectively.
For the study, the Princeton Review polled 19,400 students at 172 law schools across the country. The study also revealed that nine out of 10 graduates were employed within a year of graduating, with the median salary netting $145,000 for the top 10 schools ranked. The top five schools in the study garnered a median salary of $160,000 within one year of graduation.