Summary: A new survey from Kaplan Bar Review has found that graduates from the Class of 2014 has been more than pleased with the legal education they received.
A Kaplan Bar Review survey of more than 1,200 law school graduates from 2014 found that the majority of them grade their alma maters highly, according to a press release from Kaplan Test Prep.
Close to 40 percent of graduates from the 2014 class issued an ‘A’ grade for their law school education. This is an increase from 37 percent in 2012. Some 45 percent gave their schools a grade of ‘B,’ 11 percent issued their alma maters a grade of ‘C’ and 4 percent issued their schools a grade that was below average or failing.
Graduates were quite generous when it came to issuing grades for their law school professors, according to the survey. Close to 52 percent gave their professors and ‘A’ grade, 37 percent issued their professors a grade of ‘B,’ eight percent issued a grade of ‘C’ and ‘D’ and ‘F’ grades were issued at a one-percent rate.
In the category of law school being a worthwhile investment, graduates rated their law schools an ‘A’ at a 20 percent rate, a ‘B’ at a rate of 33 percent, a ‘C’ at a rate of 27 percent, a ‘D’ at a rate of 11 percent and an ‘F’ at a rate of 9 percent.
“Jobs are top of mind for law school graduates in what continues to be a challenging job market for new attorneys, so it’s not too surprising that students are tough graders on this front,” said Steven Marietti, vice president and general manager, Kaplan Bar Review. “The survey tells us that students are happy with the quality of their legal education overall and still see law school as a worthwhile investment, but they really want more assistance from law schools in helping them land jobs in the legal sector. It behooves law schools to do all they can do to help their graduates secure work, as a program’s employment stats for graduates factors into law school rankings, which in turn is a factor for law school applicants. We also encourage students to take advantage of every networking and internship opportunity, which means visiting your law school’s career office early and often.”