University of Denver ranked among schools such as Stanford and Cornell in the 2005 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools” published in U.S. News and World Report last week.
Most significantly, the College of Law ranked 77th in the top 100 graduate law schools across the country. According to the DU law website, this is the third consecutive year DU has been included in such a list. During those three years, the college rose 33.5 positions, up to the current ranking.
The rankings are “based on a weighted average of the 12 measures of quality” such as: quality assessment (scored by lawyers and judges), 2003 GPA, 2003 LSAT scores, acceptance rate, student to faculty ratio, percent employment at graduation, faculty resources and a few others.
According to U.S. News and World Report, the College of Law undergraduate GPA averages between 2.9 and 3.5. The student to faculty ratio is 14 to 8. At graduation in 2002, 85.7 percent of graduates were employed. The midrange of full-time private sector salaries of graduates ranges between $45,000 and $90,000.
The College of Law Web site notes that the “school also ranked No. 12 in environmental law, No. 14 in trial advocacy, No. 22 in tax law, and is listed among 73 law schools cited for diverse student bodies.”
The Web site also noted that the college has the oldest environmental and natural resources law program in the country. Professor Jan Laitos, the program director, was quoted in saying, “the environmental law and natural resources program at the law school certainly is considered by many to be one of the best in the United States.”
In competition, DU’s College of Law has also shown its superiority.
The College’s “moot court teams have won eight American Trial Lawyer’s Association (ATLA) regional championships in the past 12 years,” notes the Web site. In addition, DU law students triumphed at the National Civil Trial competition this year and the regional American Bar Association competition.
Erica Foss, a political science major at DU, said, “The College of Law did seem to have noteworthy appraisal.
I didn’t choose DU because of the rankings, but instead for the programs it offers.”
