I notice a great deal of reliance on USN&WR rankings. This ranking is based on votes by people who are disproportionately
faculty or grads of Florida and NYU. To make an informed choice check faculty publications, judicial citations and entering class data,

the problem is, like it or not, it does not matter if UF or NYU is a better school than [insert name] The fact remains that the world says it therefor it must be. (I think therefor I am type logic) The tax community has for some reason set the rule that NYU and UF are the best schools and they follow this and will continue to follow that rule. Use what ever logic you use to point to another school being better at your own peril because rest assured that no employer or any other person is going to care.
This also applys to JD. Having several friends who transfered to top 10 schools, I have heard one constant theme: the education is the same, they are the same lawyer, there is no difference between schools; however, employers who would not touch them at their previous schools all of a sudden started treating them like legal gods.
The name of the education is in many cases more important than the actual education

raderoot is right to some extent especially with respect to nyu. A florida degree, however, no longer carries the clout it once had. In all likelihood it will slip to third or lower soon in part because tax faculty at top schools do not regard florida as much of a power house. And if USN&WR shifts to a more numbers based approach like it uses for JD programs, it will tumble quite far,

Raderoot has nicely said what many experience. Sadly, it is a game, but as one professor said to me when he was talking about the whole publish-or-perish thing: "It's the game I chose when I entered this field..."

The same can be said of the rankings - to some extent it's a silly game, but it's a game the schools choose to play. (Except for the few schools that have the guts to refuse to participate in USN&WR.)

So, students play schools off of each other for the best scholarship possible as a 1L then transfer to a better school as a 2L because of the perceived better education or jobs waiting for them. Although I disagree with you that "the education is the same," I 100% agree that there's less concern about the intangible value of things like accessable profs and student life than the "dollar$ when I'm done."

Well, I guess I got off topic about the rankings...sorry.

I don't see UF dropping anytime soon. I can give you a dozen reasons why they should drop, but it just wont happen. For decades, tax education has revolved around UF and NYU. That tradition has a way of self-perpetuating. Students will come, professors will teach, employers will hire and scholars will write for the Florida Tax Review because of nothing else but the name Florida.

Oh, for sure! UF is not going to tumble. I think Jake is wrong on that one. If you follow the real blogs (not here) on the guys who dissect the US News, there is one constant: "The best predictor of next year's rank is last year's rank." That is a statistical fact. The moves are slow unless there is a complete overturn of the faculty (which usually means something is screwy behind the scenes at the institution). So unless everyone bails from UF, there will be no tumble...

After listening to prof after prof, I agree that they may not deserve their ranking but whatever rank UF deserves to be, GT definitely should be even lower because they are admitting anyone with a pulse these days and have s**t for a career services dept outside of the beltway. (Oh crap, I'm on another tangent - Save that GT comment for a new thread.)

Anyway, I don't defend USN&WR at all...I'm just sayin "It's the game they (the schools) have chosen" and we're all stuck with it. There are profs who have come up with alternative rankings, but no prospective student cares - only other dweeby academics read those rankings. Worse yet, the bean counting university Provosts and Alumni Offices don't care about any other matrix than the US News cuz it drives university dollars.

Dang, this is really depressing now that I think about it! We should have gone to Med School in Granada and become Vets in Key West instead of becoming lawyers...we'd be sipping on Margarita's while diagnosing talking parrots right now! Ha ha!

I like your vet idea Steve. Do you think its too late for a career change? We can make a reality TV show: Vets of Margaritaville.

The 24/7 Vets!!! Check out a typical Key West live web stream:
http://www.hogsbreath.com/hogcam/rawbarcam.htm
I think my office will be within walking distance of this place..