The University of St. Thomas School of Law announced this week that it provided incorrect employment data to U.S. News and World Report, which just published its annual rankings of "best law schools."
"We are deeply sorry to have failed to catch this discrepancy in our reported data," the university wrote. "We take data accuracy very seriously."
Here's how the university describes the error:
Officials caught the incorrect percentage when reviewing an advance copy of U.S. News' rankings, said Chato Hazelbaker, spokesman for the law school.
"It looks like to us like a simple typing error," he said. " We are making every effort right now to put triple checks in place."
U.S. News had given St. Thomas a ranking of 119 -- a significant jump from last year. The school is unsure whether that ranking will change once the data is corrected, Hazelbaker said.
The line item about the percentage of students employed at the time of their graduation was not required, Hazelbaker said. "We were really responding for increased calls for transparency," he said.
The nine-month number, which was accurately reported, is the "gold-standard," he said.
