My Version of the USNWR Rankings

This composite is a reflection of the complaints I've made in the other sections.

I made no changes to reputation ranking, but "standardized" it by multiplying by 10.
I made extensive changes in the Placement Success calculation. I weighted jobs at graduation 60%, jobs 9 months later and bar passage rate 20% each.
For Selectivity, I looked only at median grades and LSAT, standardizing by multiplying gpa by 10. I left out admission per cent, for the reasons I railed about back a few pages.
There was so little available data for facilities that I didn't bother to include it.
For the final calculation, I weighted reputation and placement 40% each and selectivity 20%, since it tends to mirror reputation.

Here's what I got:

(for additional commentary, see below the chart)

school	rep	pl	Sel	tot	rank
Stanford	97	107.1	85.3	98.7	1
Yale	97	104.4	87.9	98.1	2
Harvard	98	103.1	87.2	97.9	3
Columbia	96	102.0	85.7	96.3	4
Cal-Berkeley	93	105.0	85.1	96.2	5
Chicago	96	101.5	85.9	96.2	5
NYU	92	102.9	85.9	95.1	7
Michigan	94	100.3	84.0	94.5	8
Virginia	92	98.5	84.5	93.1	9
Penn	89	101.6	84.0	93.0	10
Duke	88	101.2	83.5	92.4	11
Georgetown	85	98.4	84.2	90.2	12
Cornell	86	96.7	83.8	89.8	13
Northwestern	84	97.2	84.5	89.4	14
Cal-UCLA	81	93.9	83.9	86.7	15
Texas	84	91.5	82.6	86.7	15
Vanderbilt	77	92.3	82.8	84.3	17
George Wash.	71	94.1	82.1	82.5	18
Boston College	69	93.1	83.2	81.5	19
N. Carolina	74	87.1	82.0	80.8	20
Illinois	71	89.9	81.5	80.6	21
Minnesota	74	85.4	82.7	80.3	22
Iowa	72	86.3	80.7	79.5	23
Wash & Lee	69	87.4	82.7	79.1	24
Southern Cal.	71	85.0	83.1	79.0	25
Boston U.	69	87.1	81.4	78.7	26
Fordham	63	92.2	82.9	78.6	27
William & Mary	68	86.9	82.0	78.4	28
Cal-Hastings	73	81.0	81.8	78.0	29
Notre Dame	69	84.6	82.2	77.9	30
Brigham Young	62	91.1	82.0	77.6	31
Wisconsin	72	79.2	80.1	76.5	32
Wash. U.	68	82.3	81.4	76.4	33
Emory	70	79.2	81.0	75.9	34
Washington	67	79.2	82.6	75.0	35
Tulane	66	80.7	80.1	74.7	36
Utah	59	86.5	81.1	74.4	37
Georgia	63	81.4	82.2	74.2	38
George Mason	53	92.8	79.1	74.1	39
Wake Forest	62	82.7	80.5	74.0	40
Marquette	51	95.0	77.5	73.9	41
Seton Hall	50	95.9	77.1	73.8	42
Ind. Bloomington	68	75.6	80.9	73.6	43
Loyola-Chicago	52	91.0	79.8	73.1	44
Ohio State	66	75.9	80.6	72.9	45
Cal-Davis	68	73.1	81.1	72.7	46
Alabama	55	86.4	79.8	72.5	47
Rutgers-Newark	57	84.7	78.8	72.4	48
Arizona	62	78.0	81.1	72.2	49
Case Western	60	80.9	78.3	72.0	50
Rutgers-Camden	53	87.2	78.4	71.8	51
Hawaii	48	90.9	78.8	71.3	52
Connecticut	56	81.3	80.3	71.0	53
Houston	56	81.4	79.7	70.9	54
Villanova	56	80.0	79.4	70.3	55
American	58	77.2	79.2	69.9	56
Maryland	56	79.1	79.2	69.9	56
San Diego	52	82.0	80.0	69.6	58
Tennessee	57	76.7	79.8	69.4	59
MO-Columbia	57	76.9	78.7	69.3	60
Cincinnati	55	77.8	80.9	69.3	60
DePaul	50	84.7	76.3	69.1	62
Arizona St.	57	75.8	79.7	69.0	63
SMU	58	74.8	79.5	69.0	63
Kansas	58	75.4	78.3	69.0	63
Baylor	55	76.6	81.8	69.0	63
Buffalo-SUNY	52	81.7	77.1	68.9	67
Pittsburgh	58	75.1	78.0	68.8	68
Colorado	62	69.0	82.0	68.8	68
Chicago-Kent	53	78.4	77.0	68.0	70
Loyola-L.A.	52	77.9	79.6	67.9	71
William Mitchell	44	86.9	77.1	67.8	72
Toledo	39	91.6	77.0	67.6	73
Florida	63	65.0	80.5	67.3	74
Louisiana St.	50	79.0	78.0	67.2	75
Catholic	53	75.9	77.5	67.0	76
Temple	56	72.0	78.8	67.0	76
Cardozo	53	74.3	79.5	66.8	78
Saint John's	50	78.2	76.9	66.7	79
Oklahoma	54	72.9	78.9	66.5	80
Kentucky	53	72.7	80.8	66.4	81
Mississippi	49	78.3	77.5	66.4	81
Idaho	45	81.1	77.9	66.0	83
Denver	51	75.5	76.9	66.0	83
Brooklyn	51	74.0	79.6	65.9	85
Albany	48	78.7	75.8	65.8	86
Ind. Indianapolis	51	74.1	78.5	65.7	87
S. Carolina	50	75.2	78.0	65.7	87
Miami	57	68.6	77.3	65.7	87
Santa Clara	51	73.2	78.8	65.4	90
Syracuse	54	71.0	77.0	65.4	90
W. Virginia	46	78.6	77.4	65.3	92
Nebraska	54	69.8	78.9	65.3	92
Oregon	59	64.6	79.1	65.3	92
Penn State	52	72.5	77.2	65.2	95
Saint Louis	51	71.9	78.0	64.7	96
Florida St.	53	69.3	78.6	64.6	97
Vermont	49	74.4	75.5	64.5	98
New Mexico	53	68.8	78.3	64.4	99
Cleveland St.	41	81.7	75.9	64.3	100
Wayne State	50	71.6	77.9	64.2	101
Pepperdine	48	72.5	78.7	63.9	102
Richmond	51	69.1	78.7	63.8	103
MO-Kansas City	48	73.0	76.4	63.7	104
Georgia St.	47	72.8	78.7	63.7	104
S. Dakota	44	76.3	77.2	63.6	106
Hofstra	49	70.5	78.9	63.6	106
Creighton	47	73.7	75.9	63.4	108
Loyola-N.O.	47	73.6	75.6	63.4	108
Dayton	42	78.1	76.2	63.3	110
Drake	44	75.9	76.4	63.2	111
Mercer	46	73.3	76.6	63.0	112
Northeastern	47	70.9	78.8	62.9	113
Louisville	44	73.4	79.8	62.9	113
Stetson	44	74.1	77.9	62.8	115
Montana	46	72.3	77.0	62.7	116
Texas Tech	45	71.1	78.9	62.2	117
Baltimore	42	76.2	74.2	62.1	118
Memphis	40	76.7	77.2	62.1	118
Maine	50	66.6	76.7	62.0	120
Duquesne	45	71.4	75.7	61.7	121
Campbell	31	83.4	77.6	61.3	122
Franklin Pierce	44	71.5	75.1	61.2	123
San Francisco	48	65.8	78.0	61.1	124
Wyoming	46	67.6	77.0	60.8	125
Valparaiso	44	69.2	76.1	60.5	126
Howard	46	67.1	75.4	60.3	127
Washburn	40	72.7	75.2	60.1	128
Hamline	40	71.5	76.8	60.0	129
Miss. Coll	35	77.3	75.2	60.0	129
Tulsa	44	68.0	74.8	59.8	131
N. C. Central	37	74.9	74.6	59.7	132
Ark-Fayetteville	45	65.0	77.5	59.5	133
N. Dakota	47	63.3	76.5	59.4	134
Lewis & Clark	49	59.8	79.2	59.4	134
Seattle	46	61.6	77.9	58.6	136
S. Illinois	41	66.9	76.9	58.5	137
John Marshall	40	68.5	75.2	58.4	138
Gonzaga	47	60.8	75.6	58.2	139
Ark. Little Rock	40	66.6	77.9	58.2	139
N. Illinois	35	71.9	76.4	58.0	141
Saint Mary's	41	66.7	74.1	57.9	142
Detroit C./MSU	44	62.5	76.3	57.9	142
Samford	38	68.9	75.6	57.9	142
McGeorge	47	59.0	75.6	57.5	145
Willamette	48	56.3	77.7	57.3	146
Akron	40	64.5	76.6	57.1	147
Widener	39	66.0	73.8	56.7	148
Pace	42	61.7	76.2	56.7	148
Capital	37	66.5	75.0	56.4	150
NYLS	46	57.5	74.9	56.4	150
Suffolk	39	61.6	78.1	55.9	152
Quinnipiac	37	65.4	73.6	55.7	153
S. Texas	37	64.6	74.3	55.5	154
Whittier	32	68.1	75.0	55.0	155
W. New England	31	68.9	73.2	54.6	156
Southern	29	71.3	71.4	54.4	157
Detroit Mercy	33	65.7	73.8	54.2	158
N. Kentucky	34	63.0	76.1	54.0	159
Southwestern	38	59.2	75.2	53.9	160
New England	37	60.9	73.6	53.9	160
Roger Wms	33	64.0	73.9	53.6	162
Cal. Western	33	62.7	75.4	53.4	163
Texas Wesleyan	32	63.0	74.2	52.8	164
Golden Gate	33	61.0	75.9	52.8	164
Oklahoma City	33	62.4	72.8	52.7	166
Nova	36	57.6	73.2	52.1	167
Saint Thomas	30	61.9	72.0	51.1	168
Regent	29	60.9	74.6	50.9	169
Ohio Northern	34	51.4	74.9	49.1	170
Touro	35	47.8	73.7	47.9	171
NY-CUNY	37	44.7	75.5	47.8	172
Texas Southern	30	52.3	70.6	47.1	173
Thomas Cooley	31	49.2	71.5	46.4	174

You might have noticed that Stanford came out #1. I don't know why. The obvious thought is that calculating bar passage as a ratio of state bar passage pushed it up. But USNWR already says they calculate it that way. Bar passage did push Berkeley up and Chicago down, but again I don't know why. Could it be that USNWR doesn't calculate the way they say they do? Or does the skewing I discuss here change the results that much?

Now you know why people rail about statistics. If the results don't come out the way you want, you can always change the weights accorded to the variables!

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