As readers of TOTM know, I am interested in law school rankings. So recently I’ve been reading about the Vault “underrated” law school rankings (see my colleague Ilya Somin’s take here). Of course, I agree that GMU is underrated (and also with the praise the recruiter comments section gives to our evening students). But that is besides the point.
What does this have to do with Bill? No sooner do I start thinking about what the implications for the Vault rankings might be for an improved law school ranking procedure than does Bill post the following: “Vault Top 25 Underrated Schools: What Does It Mean?” Bill has done some very interesting empirical work on rankings and the legal profession more generally and so ran a few preliminary tests and explores the the quantitative and qualitative evidence in support of two explanations of the low rankings of various schools relative to Vault’s recruiter scores: (1) better students than the USNews measures tell us; and (2) more educational value-added than other schools of comparable rank. Obviously the analysis is preliminary, and only suggestive. But it is real analysis. And it is in a blog. And you should go read it.
Time to go scout the Bruins’ Final Four opponent!