US News rankings for Graduate schools released. I maybe an outlier to most on this board, but I am really disappointed in OU academic rankings. Engineering (110), Business (86). Health (74). Law (88). Undergrad (127). Listen I love OU football, however, the relatively low ranking of the States supposed Flagship university in almost every meaningful category ( I get Petroleum engineering, dance etc) is shameful. I love football as much as anyone but the apparent willingness to excel at football at any cost and languish in academics saddens me. Oh, by the way I am an OU graduate.

US News rankings for Graduate schools released. I maybe an outlier to most on this board, but I am really disappointed in OU academic rankings. Engineering (110), Business (86). Health (74). Law (88). Undergrad (127). Listen I love OU football, however, the relatively low ranking of the States supposed Flagship university in almost every meaningful category ( I get Petroleum engineering, dance etc) is shameful. I love football as much as anyone but the apparent willingness to excel at football at any cost and languish in academics saddens me. Oh, by the way I am an OU graduate.

Per usual…a disparaging comment that doesn’t make any sense and places blame in the completely wrong place. You realize that the athletic program is self sustaining, is funded completely separately from the university, and provides revenue as well as a ton of exposure for the university, right?

Please expand on your comment and explain in detail how you think the football or athletic program as a whole are negatively impacting academics at OU in any way, whatsoever. I’d love to hear an argument for how a successful athletic and football program do anything other than help the university.

^
The ratings have generally improved over the years but until the state decides to quit de-funding education, there is only so much that the school can do.

Football more than pays for the entire athletic department and certainly encourages donations to the university as a whole, so you are barking up the wrong tree in that regard.

Listen, the solution I do not have but if people are accepting of the Academic Standing of OU so be it. Football was used because the mindset of the University from its founding

In the early glory days of University Oklahoma football – just after the school had won its first mythical national championship – then-University President Dr. George L. Cross found himself defending a budget request to the State Legislature’s appropriations committee.

”Yes, that’s all well and good,” responded one State Senator. ”But what kind of football team are we going to have this year?”

Dr. Cross’s cynical but witty reply: ”We want to build a university our football team can be proud of.”

OU Law ranked 31st as recently as 2020. Since then, many tenured faculty members have retired and the rumor is the school was only allowed to hire one tenured-track faculty member a year. This led to a huge increase in the reliance on adjunct professors--particularly professors that had never taught before and held a full-time legal career outside of the school. Oklahoma also switched to the Universal Bar Exam (UBE) in 2021 and the faculty have not pivoted their teaching to reflect that. As a result, Bar passage rates recently have been terrible. Prior to 2021, OU Law enjoyed a passage rate of about 95%. In the four exams since then, passage rates for OU have been 88%, 50%, 82%, and 61%. Overall passage rates for the most recent Bar Exam were 37% (!). OU Law is still the best law school in Oklahoma, handedly out-performing TU and OCU (TU is ranked 118 and OCU is ranked 147-192, which is essentially unranked), but unless they get serious about acquiring good, long-term professors and focusing on the UBE, I fear they will continue to slip in the rankings.

Listen, the solution I do not have but if people are accepting of the Academic Standing of OU so be it. Football was used because the mindset of the University from its founding

In the early glory days of University Oklahoma football – just after the school had won its first mythical national championship – then-University President Dr. George L. Cross found himself defending a budget request to the State Legislature’s appropriations committee.

”Yes, that’s all well and good,” responded one State Senator. ”But what kind of football team are we going to have this year?”

Dr. Cross’s cynical but witty reply: ”We want to build a university our football team can be proud of.”

What on earth are you talking about?

1) Mythical national championship? He said that in 1951 after they won a CONSENSUS national championship in 1950.

2) How was that the mindset since it’s founding? Do you think George Lynn cross was president in 1890? He didn’t start his tenure as president until 1943. Football was a relatively new sport in 1890 and OU didn’t even get decent until after Bennie Owen was hired in 1905. And didn’t become a power house program until the late 40s and early 50s….nearly 60 YEARS after the university was founded

Get your history straight before going off on tangents that don’t make any sense historically to justify whatever weak point you were trying to make to start. Academics need to improve but football and the athletic program being excellent/relevant so nothing but help bring OU closer to that goal. Look no further than pre 2000 NC vs post 2000 NC.

OU Law ranked 31st as recently as 2020. Since then, many tenured faculty members have retired and the rumor is the school was only allowed to hire one tenured-track faculty member a year. This led to a huge increase in the reliance on adjunct professors--particularly professors that had never taught before and held a full-time legal career outside of the school. Oklahoma also switched to the Universal Bar Exam (UBE) in 2021 and the faculty have not pivoted their teaching to reflect that. As a result, Bar passage rates recently have been terrible. Prior to 2021, OU Law enjoyed a passage rate of about 95%. In the four exams since then, passage rates for OU have been 88%, 50%, 82%, and 61%. Overall passage rates for the most recent Bar Exam were 37% (!). OU Law is still the best law school in Oklahoma, handedly out-performing TU and OCU (TU is ranked 118 and OCU is ranked 147-192, which is essentially unranked), but unless they get serious about acquiring good, long-term professors and focusing on the UBE, I fear they will continue to slip in the rankings.

with the former Dean of the law school as president…that would seem to only help

What on earth are you talking about?

1) Mythical national championship? He said that in 1951 after they won a CONSENSUS national championship in 1950.

2) How was that the mindset since it’s founding? Do you think George Lynn cross was president in 1890? He didn’t start his tenure as president until 1943. Football was a relatively new sport in 1890 and OU didn’t even get decent until after Bennie Owen was hired in 1905. And didn’t become a power house program until the late 40s and early 50s.

Get your history straight before going off on tangents that don’t make any sense historically to justify whatever weak point you were trying to make to start. Academics need to improve but football and the athletic program being excellent/relevant so nothing but help bring OU closer to that goal. Look no further than pre 2000 NC vs post 2000 NC.






Hey Man, don't blow a gasket. If you disagree with my analogy, OK or even my take on academics.OK, no need to be so defensive, its just my opinion

Hey Man, don't blow a gasket. If you disagree with my analogy, OK or even my take on academics.OK, no need to be so defensive, its just my opinion

You threw out inaccurate facts to back up one of your usual over the top negative opinions. It’s not an opinion when you’re factually wrong. Stop throwing out dumb opinions that you can’t back up. If 99% of your posts are negative, provide no constructive feedback and you give completely bogus justification for them…expect reactions like mine when speaking about things others care about…

Hey Man, don't blow a gasket. If you disagree with my analogy, OK or even my take on academics.OK, no need to be so defensive, its just my opinion

Throwing out pipe bombs, and then being upset when they blow up, is the definition of a troll.

I agree with you that the rankings aren't good. But then you go on and wax poetic, spouting your opinions as facts. You can't be mad when someone counters and proves your opinion and bad facts wrong.

Throwing out pipe bombs, and then being upset when they blow up, is the definition of a troll.

I agree with you that the rankings aren't good. But then you go on and wax poetic, spouting your opinions as facts. You can't be mad when someone counters and proves your opinion and bad facts wrong.

The statement I quoted is a factual statement. Address the point, which is one you agreed with "rankings aren't good". These other objections are just deflections from that fact. Oh, and as an aside, I certainly am not upset Lol

The statement I quoted is a factual statement. Address the point, which is one you agreed with "rankings aren't good". These other objections are just deflections from that fact. Oh, and as an aside, I certainly am not upset Lol

Are you intentionally ignoring the rest of your post? You more than insinuate that the academic rankings are low because the school focuses too much on the football program and not enough on academics and then tried to make some stupid argument that it’s been that way since it was founded despite the fact that the program wasn’t all that relevant until 60 years later. Then ignore reality about the relationship between academics and the athletic department today.

Are you intentionally ignoring the rest of your post? You more than insinuate that the academic rankings are low because the school focuses too much on the football program and not enough on academics and then tried to make some stupid argument that it’s been that way since it was founded despite the fact that the program wasn’t all that relevant until 60 years later. Then ignore reality about the relationship between academics and the athletic department today.

Thats why Texas has improved academically. They have been garbage on the field to make up for it.

US News rankings for Graduate schools released. I maybe an outlier to most on this board, but I am really disappointed in OU academic rankings. Engineering (110), Business (86). Health (74). Law (88). Undergrad (127). Listen I love OU football, however, the relatively low ranking of the States supposed Flagship university in almost every meaningful category ( I get Petroleum engineering, dance etc) is shameful. I love football as much as anyone but the apparent willingness to excel at football at any cost and languish in academics saddens me. Oh, by the way I am an OU graduate.

Given the state's political fight with education and intellectualism, their continued lack of funding, their propensity to put more effort into the culture wars they fantasize about with universities, it is amazing OU can be rated at highly as it is. I sucks to be the other Oklahoma universities and colleges who are still looking up to even that.

You apparently don't know much about your school if you don't know that the athletic department is self sufficient and is in fact a net donor to the university. It not only isn't a distraction, it is part of what is enabling it to stay as academically competitive as it is.

As long as the state political leadership is anti education, we get what we get.

OU Law ranked 31st as recently as 2020. Since then, many tenured faculty members have retired and the rumor is the school was only allowed to hire one tenured-track faculty member a year. This led to a huge increase in the reliance on adjunct professors--particularly professors that had never taught before and held a full-time legal career outside of the school. Oklahoma also switched to the Universal Bar Exam (UBE) in 2021 and the faculty have not pivoted their teaching to reflect that. As a result, Bar passage rates recently have been terrible. Prior to 2021, OU Law enjoyed a passage rate of about 95%. In the four exams since then, passage rates for OU have been 88%, 50%, 82%, and 61%. Overall passage rates for the most recent Bar Exam were 37% (!). OU Law is still the best law school in Oklahoma, handedly out-performing TU and OCU (TU is ranked 118 and OCU is ranked 147-192, which is essentially unranked), but unless they get serious about acquiring good, long-term professors and focusing on the UBE, I fear they will continue to slip in the rankings.

As a recent law school grad and someone that passed the UBE the first time it was administered in Oklahoma, I would like to share some thoughts. Nothing is hurting bar passage rates more than law schools--it is a national issue; just search Reddit--refusing to provide/push any other bar prep software other than Barbri. Also, 99% of my day in practice consists of nothing that was covered/taught in law school.

Until Oklahoma begins to fund higher education of its universities, colleges and schools, you're not going to see major changes in rankings regardless of what methodology is used .

Does anyone know of any years where Oklahoma's congressional leadership had large increases in funding education of our public schools or university-college levels enough to make a difference . . .

That doesn't mean Oklahoma shouldn't be funding education as a whole. It is going to take years of research on this concern to get Oklahoma moving in the right direction. You need to identify why Oklahoma lags in education using more than U. S. News and World Reports

What you invest $$$ in funding education is what you'll get from it.

Also, 99% of my day in practice consists of nothing that was covered/taught in law school.

Just like every other job and degree.

OU Law ranked 31st as recently as 2020. Since then, many tenured faculty members have retired and the rumor is the school was only allowed to hire one tenured-track faculty member a year. This led to a huge increase in the reliance on adjunct professors--particularly professors that had never taught before and held a full-time legal career outside of the school. Oklahoma also switched to the Universal Bar Exam (UBE) in 2021 and the faculty have not pivoted their teaching to reflect that. As a result, Bar passage rates recently have been terrible. Prior to 2021, OU Law enjoyed a passage rate of about 95%. In the four exams since then, passage rates for OU have been 88%, 50%, 82%, and 61%. Overall passage rates for the most recent Bar Exam were 37% (!). OU Law is still the best law school in Oklahoma, handedly out-performing TU and OCU (TU is ranked 118 and OCU is ranked 147-192, which is essentially unranked), but unless they get serious about acquiring good, long-term professors and focusing on the UBE, I fear they will continue to slip in the rankings.

What is the methadology of determining % of passeing of the Bar? Is it all eligible grads who passed or is it based on those who took it?
That 50% represents a covid year where many who were eligible did not take the test based on the setup it was administered under.

Just like every other job and degree.

Frustratingly spot on

Which criteria in this academic ranking do y’all think OU most needs to improve in? How do you think they’d accomplish that? Do you think it’s in the best interest of the students and faculty to make those changes?

Which criteria in this academic ranking do y’all think OU most needs to improve in? How do you think they’d accomplish that? Do you think it’s in the best interest of the students and faculty to make those changes?

I always appreciate your insight and commentary on these rankings. But while they matter, it’s frustrating to have such a poor showing. Not surprising, given how much OK values education.

What is the methadology of determining % of passeing of the Bar? Is it all eligible grads who passed or is it based on those who took it?
That 50% represents a covid year where many who were eligible did not take the test based on the setup it was administered under.

Here you go: https://okbbe.com/Bar-Exam-Statistics/default.aspx

Personally speaking I don't care a whole lot about academic rankings. Again just a personal observation but myself and everyone else I know that graduated from OU had their degree get them where they expected to go.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-bar-exam-officials-blame-low-scores-covid-disruptions-repeat-testers-2023-03-31/

This article sheds light on the national problems of law schools. Covid made a big hit on academics everywhere.

Personally speaking I don't care a whole lot about academic rankings. Again just a personal observation but myself and everyone else I know that graduated from OU had their degree get them where they expected to go.
Rankings impact alumni/donor contributions as well as potential candidates to fill teaching positions.

^

And attracts bright minds which is key to growing the economy rather than buying factories and call centers with taxpayer money.

Funding literally plays a MASSIVE role in those rankings. If the state, tomorrow, said we're going to double funding for state universities, every universities ranking would go up almost overnight (it might take 2 or 3 years to show up)

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings

It's ridiculous how much of that is tied to funding. Well over 50% of methodological ratting is impacted substantially by funding.

Not any public university's fault our rankings suck.

US News rankings for Graduate schools released. I maybe an outlier to most on this board, but I am really disappointed in OU academic rankings. Engineering (110), Business (86). Health (74). Law (88). Undergrad (127). Listen I love OU football, however, the relatively low ranking of the States supposed Flagship university in almost every meaningful category ( I get Petroleum engineering, dance etc) is shameful. I love football as much as anyone but the apparent willingness to excel at football at any cost and languish in academics saddens me. Oh, by the way I am an OU graduate.

Why not as an OU graduate just be greatly thankful that OU beat OSU in the ratings in so many ways except in education? But OSU ranked only #70 in education is something to be ashamed about not proud of. I find it highly amusing that OSU's quite highly fancy new business building with all the many pillars lining the front of it could not beat OU for business. I'm not one of them, but if I was a wealthy OSU business alumnus who gave a bunch of money to raise that new business building, then I would now feel being mighty pissed off!

But still as lowly rated as OU is, it seems to me since the Oklahoma Legislature won't do it that wealthy OU alumni need to step it up much greater than ever in donating big money to OU to build new updated academic buildings as well as give money to pay professors better. After all, I'm sure the various coaches in the OU sports dept. are quite well highly paid from the result of HUGE donations. So, why not value education just as much in Oklahoma! Imagine great OU professors in their fields being paid as much as $1 million dollars a year!!

I graduated from OU undergraduate in 1992 and the academics then were relatively "lackluster". One big problem I recall was that they were having to provide basic remedial classes in English, math, etc. just to get many " high school graduates" up to speed, the bulk of which came out of public schools. So when they hired Boren, his goal was for OU to surpass the private universities in the number of National Merit Scholars and they were successful. He also pushed for Rhodes, Fulbright applications at OU. Cash rolled in for research on the OU Health Sciences Center end. Of course, in the end Boren was doing other things that were of no value to the university and wrecked his reputation, but I think having a university president who dreams big with regards to academic success and stacks the classes with high achieving students goes a long way in the rankings help long-term.

Also, 99% of my day in practice consists of nothing that was covered/taught in law school.

Can confirm that just about any information you practiced with for the Bar Exam is unlikely to be relevant when/if you end up as a litigator. As mentioned above, I imagine it's similar to all professions. I do appreciate some aspects of the MBE though in that some of the general/specific intent stuff can be pretty helpful later on, but it's funny again that we spend so much preparing lawyers to practice criminal law when so few end up practicing it, let alone will ever see the inside of a courtroom.

Can confirm that just about any information you practiced with for the Bar Exam is unlikely to be relevant when/if you end up as a litigator. As mentioned above, I imagine it's similar to all professions. I do appreciate some aspects of the MBE though in that some of the general/specific intent stuff can be pretty helpful later on, but it's funny again that we spend so much preparing lawyers to practice criminal law when so few end up practicing it, let alone will ever see the inside of a courtroom.I engineering I wouldn't say no information is used in a career. But probably 75% you never need or use.

I engineering I wouldn't say no information is used in a career. But probably 75% you never need or use.

In the era of the new Bar Exam, they have completely ditched the Oklahoma content in favor of nationalized standard testing. The downside is that you don't need to know a word of Oklahoma law to pass the Oklahoma Bar Exam. The upside is that it costs the Bar association less and that a passing score gains you reciprocity in more places.

And there's something to the current ranking as OU tends to outdo OCU and TU.. but I went to OCU and passed the first time and am employed as a trial lawyer, which are the only stats which are relevant to me.

An article in the WSJ today cites a study that ranks OU 12th in the nation in the public university category for above average engineering salaries over the first 10 years of an engineering career. An OU engineering grad has an annual $11,350 salary premium compared to the average.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-colleges-high-paying-jobs-engineering-7be5d8f2?reflink=integratedwebview_share

An article in the WSJ today cites a study that ranks OU 12th in the nation in the public university category for above average engineering salaries over the first 10 years of an engineering career. An OU engineering grad has an annual $11,350 salary premium compared to the average.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-colleges-high-paying-jobs-engineering-7be5d8f2?reflink=integratedwebview_share

Interesting. I don't have access to the article, but I presume the preponderance of jobs in e.g. petroleum and aerospace engineering vs elsewhere is driving some of that?

Interesting. I don't have access to the article, but I presume the preponderance of jobs in e.g. petroleum and aerospace engineering vs elsewhere is driving some of that?

Does there have to be a qualifier? I mean, if they didn't have a salary premium, they would be bashed again for not having higher salary-earning degrees.

In the era of the new Bar Exam, they have completely ditched the Oklahoma content in favor of nationalized standard testing. The downside is that you don't need to know a word of Oklahoma law to pass the Oklahoma Bar Exam. The upside is that it costs the Bar association less and that a passing score gains you reciprocity in more places.

And there's something to the current ranking as OU tends to outdo OCU and TU.. but I went to OCU and passed the first time and am employed as a trial lawyer, which are the only stats which are relevant to me.

Ha, we seem to be living very similar lives. Would be interested to know if we have crossed paths in practice!

In the era of the new Bar Exam, they have completely ditched the Oklahoma content in favor of nationalized standard testing. The downside is that you don't need to know a word of Oklahoma law to pass the Oklahoma Bar Exam. The upside is that it costs the Bar association less and that a passing score gains you reciprocity in more places.

And there's something to the current ranking as OU tends to outdo OCU and TU.. but I went to OCU and passed the first time and am employed as a trial lawyer, which are the only stats which are relevant to me.

I went to TU Law (graduated Dec. 15). I have no idea what's going on with their more recent lower pass rate numbers. I was an out-of-state test takers and that year our out of state pass rate was 100% (with most out-of-state takers taking the UBE).

* looked up pass rate for first-time takers by year.... *

Oh, TU dropped below the state average staring in Feb 2020...

I would be interested in seeing how TU's C19 response differed from that of OU (and OCU).

I realize this thread is about OU, but, anecdotally at least, professors/instructors at OSU seem to be of the opinion that academic performance has significantly decreased in students over the past few years.

Ha, we seem to be living very similar lives. Would be interested to know if we have crossed paths in practice!

It's a pretty small town.

In the era of the new Bar Exam, they have completely ditched the Oklahoma content in favor of nationalized standard testing. The downside is that you don't need to know a word of Oklahoma law to pass the Oklahoma Bar Exam. The upside is that it costs the Bar association less and that a passing score gains you reciprocity in more places.

And there's something to the current ranking as OU tends to outdo OCU and TU.. but I went to OCU and passed the first time and am employed as a trial lawyer, which are the only stats which are relevant to me.

isn't knowing the state's law a bit overrated these days, with the current state of legal research tools + AI? westlaw and lexis make things very easy.

just seems like it shouldn't be too hard for a diligent practitioner to quickly gain his sea legs unless it's a particularly nuanced area of the law.

I went to TU Law (graduated Dec. 15). I have no idea what's going on with their more recent lower pass rate numbers. I was an out-of-state test takers and that year our out of state pass rate was 100% (with most out-of-state takers taking the UBE).

* looked up pass rate for first-time takers by year.... *

Oh, TU dropped below the state average staring in Feb 2020...

I would be interested in seeing how TU's C19 response differed from that of OU (and OCU).

I realize this thread is about OU, but, anecdotally at least, professors/instructors at OSU seem to be of the opinion that academic performance has significantly decreased in students over the past few years.

Was that the same time TU announced they were also getting rid of majors/consolidating grad programs? I vaguely remember there being a shocking amount of rumblings that TU was going to close their law school...

Was that the same time TU announced they were also getting rid of majors/consolidating grad programs? I vaguely remember there being a shocking amount of rumblings that TU was going to close their law school...

I don't think anyone was under the impression that TU would lose their law school at that time. At that time, I think Janet Levit was interim provost of TU, after having been dean of the law school for a few years and substantially raising its rank (at least to #72 when I attended) during her tenure. Now, they are #118.

OU Law ranked 31st as recently as 2020. Since then, many tenured faculty members have retired and the rumor is the school was only allowed to hire one tenured-track faculty member a year. This led to a huge increase in the reliance on adjunct professors--particularly professors that had never taught before and held a full-time legal career outside of the school. Oklahoma also switched to the Universal Bar Exam (UBE) in 2021 and the faculty have not pivoted their teaching to reflect that. As a result, Bar passage rates recently have been terrible. Prior to 2021, OU Law enjoyed a passage rate of about 95%. In the four exams since then, passage rates for OU have been 88%, 50%, 82%, and 61%. Overall passage rates for the most recent Bar Exam were 37% (!). OU Law is still the best law school in Oklahoma, handedly out-performing TU and OCU (TU is ranked 118 and OCU is ranked 147-192, which is essentially unranked), but unless they get serious about acquiring good, long-term professors and focusing on the UBE, I fear they will continue to slip in the rankings.

Nah, OU Law will not continue to slip in the rankings. Current Dean is too fantastic. Smart money says rankings improve.

isn't knowing the state's law a bit overrated these days, with the current state of legal research tools + AI? westlaw and lexis make things very easy.

just seems like it shouldn't be too hard for a diligent practitioner to quickly gain his sea legs unless it's a particularly nuanced area of the law.

Unless you work for a big firm which pidgeonholes you into a particular area, most lawyers are going to be well served with a good working knowledge of as many areas as possible because they all tend to intersect--and if you work in smaller states like Oklahoma, Westlaw and Lexis do about a 2/12 star (out of 5 stars) job of indexing our law and tend to focus their resources on bigger markets.

And even if you have Lexist/Westlaw and can get an answer on a particular point, you need a good working knowledge of the law to know what question to ask or how to ask it. Your question makes it sound like anyone with The Googles can be a lawyer now, and unless you think your medical doctor could be a HS dropout with access to WebMD, I don't think that'd be quite accurate.

Per my post above: US News just published their law school rankings. OU College of Law is ranked 51st, the highest ranking the school has ever had. If you remove private schools, and compare OU College of Law against state law school funded publicly, we punch far far above our weight. Great things.

Here's some other recent notables re OU College of Law:

This ranking is the latest in a series of recent honors for OU Law, which have included:



Top 25 Best Value Law School in the Nation, National Jurist preLaw Magazine (Winter 2023)
#47 ATL Top 50 Law Schools, Above the Law (Summer 2022)
Top 20% of law schools nationally in employment, USNWR Academic Insights, 2024 Edition
Top 20% of law schools nationally in bar passage, USNWR Academic Insights, 2024 Edition
Apple Distinguished School: 2017–2019; 2019–2022, and 2022–2024 (only law school in the nation so designated)
Most Innovative Law School; Law Library of the Future (2022)
Lowest in-state tuition, Big 12; more than 25% lower than the average public law school nationally, ABA

Unless you work for a big firm which pidgeonholes you into a particular area, most lawyers are going to be well served with a good working knowledge of as many areas as possible because they all tend to intersect--and if you work in smaller states like Oklahoma, Westlaw and Lexis do about a 2/12 star (out of 5 stars) job of indexing our law and tend to focus their resources on bigger markets.

And even if you have Lexist/Westlaw and can get an answer on a particular point, you need a good working knowledge of the law to know what question to ask or how to ask it. Your question makes it sound like anyone with The Googles can be a lawyer now, and unless you think your medical doctor could be a HS dropout with access to WebMD, I don't think that'd be quite accurate.

Of unless you work for a Boutique. Both firms I have worked for, I have worked in a pretty narrow area of law, neither are Big Law or just big firms.

Of unless you work for a Boutique. Both firms I have worked for, I have worked in a pretty narrow area of law, neither are Big Law or just big firms.

I used the word most. Not all.

I agree. If you do title work for aircraft sales, having a working knowledge of criminal law, family law and trusts isn't going to be much help for you. Well.. at least until your 2nd cousin needs a divorce and your mother voluntells you to handle it.

I used the word most. Not all.

I agree. If you do title work for aircraft sales, having a working knowledge of criminal law, family law and trusts isn't going to be much help for you. Well.. at least until your 2nd cousin needs a divorce and your mother voluntells you to handle it.

The great thing about working in a specialized area - I always make it well know that "this is the only area of law I know" so I really havent gotten too many of those family law questions. But I still get some and I typically respond with something along the lines of "Sorry! I learned family law from a three hour podcast the night before I took the bar. I really don't remember any of it!" Plus, I don't think any of my family live in the jurisdictions I am licensed.

Per my post above: US News just published their law school rankings. OU College of Law is ranked 51st, the highest ranking the school has ever had. If you remove private schools, and compare OU College of Law against state law school funded publicly, we punch far far above our weight. Great things.

Here's some other recent notables re OU College of Law:

This ranking is the latest in a series of recent honors for OU Law, which have included:



Top 25 Best Value Law School in the Nation, National Jurist preLaw Magazine (Winter 2023)
#47 ATL Top 50 Law Schools, Above the Law (Summer 2022)
Top 20% of law schools nationally in employment, USNWR Academic Insights, 2024 Edition
Top 20% of law schools nationally in bar passage, USNWR Academic Insights, 2024 Edition
Apple Distinguished School: 2017–2019; 2019–2022, and 2022–2024 (only law school in the nation so designated)
Most Innovative Law School; Law Library of the Future (2022)
Lowest in-state tuition, Big 12; more than 25% lower than the average public law school nationally, ABA
Major props to the leadership of Dean Guzman.
As the first woman and hispanic to be the Dean, she has guided the OU Law School to new heights.