I kinda get it but I don’t. On one hand, I love transparency. In this instance, however, I think the debate misses the point entirely.
The division’s assembly adopted a multipoint policy resolution dubbed “Truth in Law School Education” urging law schools to improve post-graduate employment information provided to prospective students and ensure that information is prominently featured in communications. ABA JOURNAL
Law schools have long lied about salary data of their graduates to game U.S. News and World Report Law School rankings system. It’s what amounts to an internet genitalia measuring contest. It’s thought that higher salaries for graduates improve a school’s rankings.
What’s wrong with the information as it is that even if law schools wanted to tell the truth they couldn’t. Most of the data is self-reported by graduates. A certain number of graduates are going to lie about their salary while others won’t bother returning the survey at all. Such is the nature of self-reported data.
What’s also wrong is that survey is done some months after graduation. I filled mine out maybe 6 months after graduation. My salary now does not resemble my salary then.
There’s no way for a law school to require graduates to complete the survey. Further there’s no way for a law school to independently verify the accuracy of the data a graduate provides.
No matter what happens it’s crap in and crap out.
With the incentive to “massage” crappy data – no matter what the ABA does the information will always be inaccurate. Not by a little but by a lot.
There’s lots of information for prospective students about lawyer salaries available online. There’s no end to well-written articles about whether or not law school is a good investment. Truthfully, students should be concerned about macro-economic trends. For many students the investment can only truly be measured over the course of their earning lives. Understanding how technology and globalization may impact the profession are far more relevant in the long term than earnings six months out of law school.
In truth, there’s no answer to the question about the economic value of legal education factoring in debt as applied to an individual. What your salary is depends on a lot more things than just where you went to law school.
While everybody is giving themselves standing ovations over this new transparency resolution – someone in the room should have been shouting that law schools shouldn’t turn over the data at all because the data is useless at best and misleading at worst.
Schools who give false or misleading data to U.S. News should be punished.
Passing this motion does nothing more than to elevate this meaningless data to a position it doesn’t deserve. This resolution just gives more food to the monster.