Princeton Review: LAW Professors Are Number One

School in top 10 in other quality measures

| From BU Today | By Rich Barlow

The School of Law houses the best legal teachers on the Princeton Review’s list. Photo courtesy of BU School of Law

The School of Law has the nation’s best professors and ranks in the top 10 law schools in other quality measures, according to the latest Princeton Review ratings.

The school-rating and test-prep company placed LAW 8th among the 172 law schools surveyed for “best classroom experience” and 10th in line for “best career prospects.” The survey is published in the Review’s 2011 edition of The Best 172 Law Schools.

The rankings are based on data supplied by the schools and, crucially, on comments from more than 18,000 students who were interviewed at the 172 schools; only schools that allowed the Review to contact students were included in the ratings.

BU’s faculty outranked those at what the Review called “similar schools,” a grouping that includes Harvard, Boston College, Northwestern, and the University of Virginia.

“We prize both scholarship and teaching quality, and our faculty reflect that commitment,” says Maureen O’Rourke, dean of LAW. “The Princeton Review ranking shows that our students also recognize and appreciate the superb ability of our faculty.”

In its two-page profile of LAW, the book praises the school’s “breadth of curricula that is matched by few other schools anywhere in the country.” The write-up quotes one student who calls the faculty “shockingly good”; another says, “Several of my professors rank as the best teachers I have had at any level.” The book notes that most LAW students give the school high marks for classroom discussions that accept diverse opinions.

It also reports that 93 percent of LAW students pass the bar exam on their first try, and the average starting salary for an alum is $135,000.

“BU Law is one of the most prestigious law schools in the country, and admission is extraordinarily competitive,” according to The Best 172 Law Schools.

The Review ranks the schools in 11 categories, giving each school a score in each category. It does not compile a single list of the best overall schools. But Paul L. Caron (LAW’88), a visiting professor at Pepperdine Law School, came up with his own ranking, based on the Review’s data, by excluding some categories the Review used and combining scores from the remaining categories. Caron placed BU fifth among law schools nationally.

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