Rajneesh Singh’s CLAT analysis, law school rankings: NLSIU retains top spot, RGNUL biggest gainer

Having a rough idea about the correct ranking of law schools becomes very useful while selecting a law school. I believe that the ranking done by those who attempt CLAT can be the best criteria as the quality of the students in a NLU determines the quality of the NLU..The moment a college starts getting good students, it automatically brings the college to the top. This has been experienced in IIMs and IITs and now the same can be seen at NLUs..NLU Delhi gets a high rating today because the quality of students studying there are at par at least with NUJS. If a law school has the best faculties and luxurious infrastructure but does not have quality students then it will never get a top law school status..I have analysed and compiled the ranking preferred by CLAT takers this year. I hope this will help. Unfortunately rankings given by leading magazines are of less use. They either do not know or ignore that one can not compare the 3 year and 5 year course together. I have taken two parameters for doing the same. I have taken the cut offs of all 14 NLUs and also the average CLAT score of all the general category students finally allotted to each of the 14 NLUs..Highlights.1. Till the top 6 NLUS, less than 75 students have chosen some other career than law while more than 80 percent have stuck to law. The situation has changed a lot in the past 4-5 years..2. RGNUL Patiala is the biggest gainer and has also been able to beat NUALS to achieve rank 9..3. NUALS, RML, GNLU and HNLU are the other four among the top 5 gainers this year..4. RMLNLU gets very close to HNLU and has good chance next year to grab 7th rank..5. The gap between NLU J and NLIU narrows down even further..6. NLU O beats CNLU to jump to rank 11. This has happened for the first time. This is because NLU O has been able maintain last year’s cut off while CNLU has gone down for the first time. CNLU which started along with RMLNLU and RGNUL is struggling now..7. The 4 colleges that come after RGNUL are still not a hot choice. In fact bottom three for the first time has negative growth. This is an indication that private colleges are becoming a more preferred option in that category..8. NLUJA is the biggest loser..9. Amongst the bottom 4, NLU O has been able to at least remain where it was last year..10 Approximately 80% have stuck to law as their career choice till top 9 colleges. This is a huge jump by RMLNLU, HNLU and RGNUL..You can refer to the two tables below for a better idea. .Tier One (NLSIU, NALSAR and NUJS).This takes a big jump this time. The top three closed at 216 all India rank this time. For the 174 general seats only 19% chose some other stream. It means law as a career continues to become a primary choice and top three NLUs are in greater demand. A jump of 41 ranks is highly appreciable at tier one stage..NLSIU, Bangalore.NLSIU established in 1987 has a big advantage of being 11 years older than the second oldest one (NALSAR). This itself is a big advantage and losing the first position can only happen if NLSIU performance goes down considerably. It is easier to maintain that for first 10 years but now they have maintained this for 16 years. They lost just 5 students (2 to NALSAR and 3 to NUJS) to other NLUs. More than 90% still believe that NLSIU is the number one. I take this as a big achievement of NLSIU..Look at the Table One, where NLSIU is still maintaining a good gap with NALSAR (47). It confirms that there is no threat for at least the next 5 years..NALSAR, Hyderabad.NALSAR is back on track after Dr Faizan Mustafa took over. It is going great now. Improvements and enrichment has been seen in past years in almost every field. And the improvement of 7 ranks at this stage is appreciable. One very big achievement of NALSAR is that it is more rock solid at number two than NLSIU is at one. This year it did not lose a single student to NUJS and was able to get two students who could have gone to NLSIU ..NUJS, Kolkata.NUJS’s improvement in cut off proves that once a brand is built up , then it does not get affected by some temporary disturbances. NUJS has seen some bad days in the past two years. But then, that hardly shows any effect. It had a brilliant zero day placement this year. NUJS also has an advantage as well as a disadvantage of having almost same number of general (all India) category candidates that NALSAR and NLSIU have together. It provides more quality (in numbers) to the recruiters and at the same time NUJS is always under pressure to bring more placements than NALSAR and NLSIU..Tier Two (NLIU, NLU-J and GNLU).Getting into the top 6 has become tougher now. A jump of 80 ranks is big. The quality of students till the top 6 is amazing now. The batch of 2014-19 will see very good placements for almost all students in these three colleges. Less than 75 students till top 6 have chosen to leave law as a career. This is an indicator that law as a career is becoming very hot..NLIU, Bhopal.NLIU Bhopal did lose the position of rank three to NUJS long back and since then it has been falling. NLU-J had been coming closer and closer to NLIU. All this was happening even after NLIU enjoys being as 3rd college in the CLAT web site list (NLIU is 2 months elder to NUJS). But, it seems that fall has halted and there is an improvement. Recent overall improvement may have helped. For the first time i saw students of NLIU active in spreading the awareness..NLU – Jodhpur.NLU Jodhpur has been able to maintain it’s last year status. It has been performing almost to the level of NUJS as per most of the parameters. NLU Jodhpur has always been performing to the level of top 5 college but being the 5th most senior college, has been struggling to improve it’s rank..GNLU, Gandhinagar.GNLU being 7th oldest one deserves lots of credit for achieving 6th position few years back and also creating a big lead over HNLU. This year too it has gained 80 ranks. And again it is in one of the top gainers. GNLU has been growing ever since Dr Patel took over the charge. I remember before that it use to be rated at par or below RMLNLU..Tier Three (HNLU, RMLNLU and RGNUL).Getting top 9 has become tough for the first time. There is huge jump for all these three colleges. RGNUL has taken a big leap..HNLU, Raipur.This college has seen lots of ups and down. It has again grown more popular this year but RMLNLU and RGNUL have grown much faster. Now again RMLNLU is putting a threat to its 7th Rank. It used to have better placements 3 years back. I am sure it will improve fast..RMLNLU, Lucknow.RMLNLU was disturbed a bit few years back even after a brilliant start (VC – Hon. Balraj Singh Chauhan). Now, in past two years there have been big improvements. There has been much better placements and recruitment of faculties..RGNUL, Patiala.RGNUL is the biggest gainer. It has been able to get an amazing infra now. It also has a very good VC. But it will have to start having better placements if it wants to grow further..Tier Four (NUALS, NLU Odisha and CNLU).Mixed performance been seen in this category. NUALS and NLU-O has performed well but CNLU has gone down..NUALS, Kochi.NUALS has been able to recover from the loss it had last year. It has gained a lot this year and I am sure it will progress well now. It will have to work well otherwise TNNLS may take the position of third preferred college in India in few years..NLU, Odisha.NLU Odisha beats CNLU for the first time. This law school has a very good and vibrant atmosphere created by its students and staffs. The culture is progressive. I heard lots of appreciation from the parents too about the environment there. I am very impressed with NLU-O students. Many other law school students may learn from them. Even after the loss of their founder VC, the students have done well to maintain the momentum..CNLU, Patna.CNLU Patna has the advantage of being an old institute. It started along with RMLNLU and RGNUL and was also inducted into CLAT together. But, it has not been able to perform to that extent. Although it has already started getting good students (last 2-3 years) but needs to now perform better. CNLU has had decent placements in past years but has not been consistent. The admin is not very supportive and students need to be more active now..CNLU has all the potential to grow fast. Good infrastructure and overall quality of students (in general) is quite good. I hope they will do well in future..Tier Five (NUSRL, NLUJA and TNNLS).This category has seen a fall for the first time. NUSRL and NLUJA have seen a fall this time. Most likely some private law school in the same category are being preferred a little more. Shift to new campuses will help a lot in improving the situation. Although TNNLS has seen a big improvement..NUSRL, Ranchi.NUSRL was blessed with a very good founding VC but has not been able to capitalize on that due to some problems. The new campus is huge and very good. I hope that will get completed soon. The students are very active and I wish them good luck..NLUJA, Guwahati.The situation here also is almost exactly the same as NUSRL. The only difference is that NUSRL cut off by the end is much better than that of NLUJA. As the north east develops, it will help NLUJA, being the first one in the region..TNNLS, Trichy.It is growing very fast and has built up very good infrastructure in less than a year. It got recognised by CLAT also in less than a year, the shortest time for an new NLU. The cut off has an amazing improvement this year and it will be interesting to see its ranking next year..Rajneesh Singh is a popular CLAT Mentor and Product Head for the law course at IMS Learning Resources.