Recent Kaplan Survey Found Majority of Pre-Law Students Seek a Law School Where Students Hold Similar Political Views

The majority of pre-law students, 58 percent, say that it's important to them to attend a law school where students share their political and social views, according to recent Kaplan Survey results. About one-third of respondents, 36 percent, said this was “not important.” Just six percent responded that they “weren’t sure.” 

Explaining their perspectives to Kaplan, students who noted political fit’s importance made the following comments:

• “I want to feel free to express my opinions without the fear of a backlash.”

• “Even though it is important to dissent with respect and grow with people with opposing views, I consider that in this day and age it’s very difficult to survive in hostile environments.”

• “Before the end of affirmative action, this was not as heavy of a concern. Now, I fear for a lack of community and support should I attend a school that does not value diversity and inclusion highly.”

Students who responded that political fit was not important were more likely to feel that political discourse and disagreement provided a richer learning environment. “I’d rather attend a law school with a range of political ideologies. I think it’s important to discuss differing beliefs and learn to respect everyone’s opinions,” one survey participant said. 

Notably, Kaplan fielded the survey prior to the October 7th attacks on Israel by Hamas. Kaplan’s Executive Director of Government and Legal Programs, Amit Schlesinger, speculates that if the survey had taken place post-October 7th, and amidst the ensuing tension on campuses nation-wide, the percentage of students calling political fit important would have been significantly higher.

To get to know better the programs you’re considering, we recommend the following: 

• Visit the school. If at all possible, meet with faculty and students. Sit in on a class discussion. Observe an extracurricular group meeting. Attend a social event if you’re able. This will help you to get a full view of what your life could look like as a student there. 

• Use social media. Follow the school on social media, as well as various student run clubs/affinity groups and/or the school paper. You will learn a lot about the perspectives and discourse that you’ll experience as part of the student body. Reading comments beneath posts will also provide you with insight on how students engage with each other and the posted content. 

• Reach out to current students and alumni in your network. If you’re not able to visit the campus, it may still be possible for you to set up meeting(s) with students and alumni who live near you or via zoom to hear about their experiences and get useful insight into the school’s culture.

Building Your List of Law Schools? Rankings Aren’t the Only Thing to Consider.

With nearly 200 ABA accredited law schools out there, picking 12 to 15 to apply to can feel daunting. We can’t tell you that rankings don’t matter (spoiler alert: sometimes, they really do!), but we can tell you that there is more to consider than just published rankings. Below, we’ve explored some other relevant factors to keep in mind.  

Rankings and Prestige. There’s been a lot of buzz over the past year about the efficacy of rankings. While rankings should not be your only metric, they are relevant. For students who know that they want to pursue a federal judicial clerkship or a position in a big law firm post-graduation (most 2022 graduates entering large law firms went to a school in the US News Top 20), attending a top-ranked law school can provide significant benefit. 

According to ABA data published in Reuters earlier this year, over 20 percent of the 2022 law graduates at Stanford, Yale, and the University of Chicago (top schools in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Law Schools ranking) obtained federal clerkships upon graduation. But this does not mean that securing such a role would be impossible without having attended a “top” school. Several law schools outside of the top 20, including University of Alabama, Notre Dame, and Baylor, have also placed many students in federal clerkships. 

We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the rankings, paying particular attention to the metrics and outcomes that mean the most to you. They are a productive starting point for further investigation. And be sure to take a look at Princeton Review’s Category-Based Rankings, which can provide helpful insight into the various components of the law school experience (Best Classroom Experience, Best Career Prospects, Best Quality of Life, etc.). 

Career Placement. If you know what type of career you would like to pursue after law school, dig into the employment placement reports of each school you are considering. Where are graduates getting internships and jobs? Which organizations regularly come to campus for on-campus recruiting? Data is also available for easy comparison on the Law School Transparency website. 

Geography. Where you are located plays an important role in your ability to network. If you know where you want to live post-graduation, consider applying to programs that are within that city or state. Similarly, if your goal is to specialize in a particular field (finance, tech, government) or a specific type of law (public service), consider applying to programs that are located near one of the industry’s hubs. This will likely allow you more opportunities to intern, volunteer, or network during the school year. 

Tuition. Depending on your goals and financial situation, including any undergraduate debt you carry, it may make sense to opt for a lower cost in-state program over an elite institution. Either way, calculate the expected cost-benefit of different categories of schools: private versus public as well as in-state versus out-of-state. 

U.S. Continues to Dominate QS Global Ranking of Law Schools

QS just released its 2023 Law & Legal Studies rankings. For the second year in a row U.S.-based programs took seven of the top ten spots in the global rankings. There was no movement between 2022 and 2023 within the top ten. 

Harvard with a near perfect score, 99.8, continued its reign at the top, followed by Oxford (98) and Cambridge (97.1). The score is calculated using the following factors: Academic reputation (50 percent), Employer reputation (30 percent), Research citations per paper (5 percent), and the H-index (15 percent), which is a metric that measures the productivity and impact of an academic department. 

2023 Rank School Total Score

1 Harvard University   99.8

2 University of Oxford     98

3 University of Cambridge 97.1

4 Yale University 93.8

5 Stanford University     93.4

6 New York University       91.6

7 London School of Economics 89.9

8 Columbia University   89.7

9 University of California, Berkeley 88.9

10 University of Chicago   87.9

Outside of the top 10, a number of elite U.S. programs ranked within the top 50. They include: Georgetown University (ranked 21), UCLA (22), University of Pennsylvania (27), Duke University (29), and Cornell University and University of Michigan (tied at 34). University of Virginia fell out of the top 50 this year, to the 51st rank.