New Ranking Says BYU Is The Best Private Law School For The Price
The Jurist, the "voice of legal education" looked at tuition, debt, and cost of living compared to the percent of employed graduates and bar exam pass rates.
This list only includes private law schools. The Jurist will publish the full best value list in October, and BYU stands as the only private school on the full list. In 2007, 13 private schools made the cut.
"With rising tuition, it has become increasingly difficult for private law schools to make the Best Value list," Jurist's Editor-in-Chief Jack Crittenden said in a statement.
The top five private law schools on the list of just private schools have an average indebtedness below $105,000.
Tuition at BYU runs $21,900 a year compared to $55,000 at Columbia Law School. Mormons get an even better deal at BYU - tuition of $10,950 a year.
Malcolm Gladwell created his own version of law school rankings in 2011 for the New Yorker that also considered financial burden. BYU came in at number two, only beneath the University of Chicago.
The Jurist's previous ranking techniques come with their criticisms, though.
Popular blog Above The Law called The Jurist's best law school's list "pure ridiculousness." That list didn't include LSAT scores or GPAs and placed the University of Alabama's law school above Harvard.