Gordon Smith has posted the final rankings of his crowdsourced survey about law schools. Perhaps the single most important thing it teaches us is: brand matters. We all believed this already. But either accidentally or intentionally, Gordon tested this theory with his new rankings by including one law school under two names: Franklin Pierce and the University of New Hampshire. The two schools partnered this year and as of this past fall, the Pierce name was replaced by UNH. So which school does the crowd think superior? No surprise, State U fared far better than Franklin Pierce. UNH scored a 43; Pierce a 33. UNH jumped 20 spots in the reputation rankings simply by changing its name.
Of course, there might be substantive reasons for this. For example, perhaps the subjects understood that Pierce would be improving in the future due to support of a big university. But more likely they responded to their overall impression of the University of New Hampshire brand. If you think Pierce is pleased by this reputational lift, imagine the excitement among folks at Southern New England School of Law (aka UMass Law) as they imagine the incremental benefit of their merger!