Law School Moves to Nation's Top
100 in U.S.News Ranking
The School of Law is listed in the nation's top 100 law schools overall
and in the top 50 public law schools in U.S.News & World Report's
new ranking released in April.
The Law School moves from its second-tier placement in the magazine's
past two years' rankings.
Upon receiving the news, Chancellor Robert Khayat says, "Congratulations
to Dean Sam Davis, the members of the faculty, support staff, and students.
Since 1854, our law school has provided wonderful educational experiences
for our students, and it is gratifying for the school to be recognized."
Davis says he is "extremely pleased" with the news. "All
of our resources are directed toward making The University of Mississippi
Law School one of the best public law schools in the country, and when
our efforts toward that end are recognized in national rankings, I believe
we are perceived as one of the best. Perception often is more important
than reality, particularly when potential students rely on the rankings."
Although Davis was among 164 deans who in 1998 signed a letter challenging
the validity of the U.S. \News rankings, he said at that time moving up
in the ranking was a top priority along with securing a chapter of Order
of the Coif national legal honor society.
The dean pointed to recent improvements, including tripling the number
of student scholarships since he took the reins in 1997, higher Law School
Admission Test scores, and a better acceptance rate among applicants,
all of which go into the formula for the rankings.
"We are concentrating in particular on the quality of our student
body, namely by raising private money for more and more scholarships,"
he says. "Another area we're improving is the student:faculty ratio.
We are interested in adding faculty slots, while keeping the size of our
student body to around 500."
The Law School's two national centers added in recent years-National Center
for Justice and the Rule of Law and National Remote Sensing and Space
Law Center-also are significant strengths, he said. "The good work
being done by our two national centers will put us on the map and hopefully
will result in higher scores on the [U.S.News] survey done by academics
and the survey by lawyers and judges, both of which account for 40 percent
of the overall score."