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Big Law or public interest? Six-figures in loan debt or very little borrowing? Sunny weather or close to home?

Those are a few of the preferences would-be law students weigh while completing XPloreJD, a new online program from AccessLex Institute that aims to help users determine what matters most to them, then identify the best law schools based on those priorities. The free tool, which came online Wednesday, is designed to educate users about law school and legal careers and provide insight that goes beyond a school's U.S. News & World Report ranking.

"This is not meant to compete with other resources or tools, but really to supplement and, hopefully, be a first step for someone who is exploring law school but doesn't know a lot of about it," said Tiffane Cochran, managing director of research at AccessLex. "Maybe they know about U.S. News & World Report and know what the T14 schools are, but aren't really sure which schools are best suited for them."

XPloreJD is based on an in-depth questionnaire that asks users to input their preferences in six different areas: location, cost, enrollment, diversity, curriculum, employment and bar pass outcomes. Users identify then which of those factors are most important in selecting a law school. The initial data input process takes about 15 minutes, though its designers urge people to spend more time contemplating and logging their preferences.

The program runs those preferences through a proprietary algorithm and provides a list of schools that most closely meet those criteria. Along with the list, the tool provides more data on those schools, links to their websites, and allows users to compare schools side-by-side. It also enables users to adjust their preferences and narrow their focus. They can save their results for future use. (AccessLex Institute is a nonprofit organization aimed at increasing access to legal education through research and programming.)

"There are plenty of services that rank law schools or project likelihood of admission to a particular law school, and while such information may have value, we believe students should have a free and easy way to consider and prioritize all the factors that will impact their law school decision in a holistic and well-informed way," said AccessLex president Chris Chapman.

XPloreJD's algorithm uses law school data pulled from the American Bar Association, U.S. News & World Report, the U.S. Department of Education, and even the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (It uses NOAA data to narrow down schools based on the type of climate users prefer.)

The goal is not to simply spit out a list of schools users should consider, Cochran said. Rather, its designers hope to help users think through what is important to them, and better understand the application process as well as how law school works.

"They should think about where their academic credentials will place them in a school's incoming class, but they should also consider other aspects of fit, such as location, size and diversity, as well as graduation outcomes, such as bar passage, clerkship opportunities, and job placement rates," she said. "Navigating all of this information can be difficult for some pre-law students. XploreJD is designed to change that."

For example, the questionnaire doesn't just ask users to input what type of job they hope to have upon graduation, but it also provides information on what a public interest job is. It weighs schools based on where users aspire to work, based on ABA data showing the states in which a school's alumni tend to work.

AccessLex has been bolstering its programming for aspiring law students in recent months. XploreJD comes on the heels of the release of MAX Pre-Law—an online program that helps potential law students think through every aspect of that choice to determine whether or not law school is right for them. It also helps with choosing a law school, applying for it, and understanding the finances of getting a law degree.

XploreJD took about two years to come to fruition, and AccessLex purposefully released it at the start of the admissions cycle in hopes that it will help people who want to begin their legal studies next fall.

"It's the only tool for pre-law students that gives you a learning experience—that sort of provides you with a virtual pre-law adviser in front of your face," Cochran said. "It gives you some information that I don't think is easily accessible from other sources."