High Rankings for Local Business, Law Schools

Columbia Business School is the third-most selective business school in the nation, according to the latest Princeton Review business and law school rankings, which are published today.

Another Manhattan-based business school, New York University's Stern School of Business, is the ninth-toughest business school to which an applicant can gain entrance, according to the new rankings.

An MBA from Columbia means having the fifth-best career prospects in the nation, while the career prospects of Stern graduates are seventh-best, according to results of the survey.

"That's terrific news," the assistant dean for admissions at Columbia Business School, Linda Meehan, said. "Being ranked as such a selective business school is a sign that people recognize Columbia's advantages — and that they're applying in great numbers. If I were a student, I'd want to be at a school that can pick and choose applicants very selectively."

Columbia and NYU fared well in Princeton Review's law school rankings as well. Columbia Law School and NYU Law School are the sixth- and 10th-most selective schools in America

Other law schools in New York City distinguished themselves in more colorful categories. CUNY's Queens College Law School, for example, has the third-most left-leaning student body in the nation, according to the rankings. St. John's University Law School in Queens has the sixth-most competitive students.

Besides ranking graduate schools, Princeton Review publishes study guides and holds preparation classes for the GMAT and LSAT, the respective business school and law school aptitude tests that anxious prospective applicants to business and law schools suffer through annually.

Princeton Review says it bases the business and law school rankings on surveys of 17,000 students attending 170 law schools and 18,000 students attending 282 business schools.The rankings of admissions selectivity are based solely on data provided by the schools, according to the survey.