The U.S.
News
&
World
Report
law
school
rankings are
here,
and
let
us
be
one
of
the
first
to
say
that
lawyers
and
law
students
are
going
to
be
in
an
absolute
tizzy
over
the
state
of
the
T14.
This
edition
of
the
rankings
brings
us
an
historic
shakeup
at
the
very
top,
complete
with
a
brand-new
No.
1
for
the
first
time
ever.
If
you
thought
the
hierarchy
of
elite
law
schools
was
untouchable,
it’s
time
to
think
again.
What
on
earth
is
going
on
here?
Before
we
get
to
that,
here’s
the methodology for
the
latest
edition
of
the
rankings,
which
may
explain
some
of
the
wild
gains
and
losses
you’re
about
to
see:
Employment:
33%
First-Time
Bar
Passage:
18%
Ultimate
Bar
Passage:
7%
Peer
Assessment:
12.5%
Lawyer/Judge
Assessment:
12.5%
LSAT/GRE:
5%
UGPA:
4%
Acceptance
Rate:
1%
Student-Faculty
Ratio:
5%
Library
Resources:
2%
Here
is
the
new-and-improved
T14,
featuring
some
pretty
major
moves:
|
Stanford University |
1 | – |
|
University of Chicago |
2 | +1 |
|
Yale University |
2 | -1 |
|
University of Pennsylvania |
4 | +1 |
|
University of Virginia |
4 | – |
|
Harvard University |
6 | – |
|
Duke University |
7 | -1 |
|
New York University |
7 | +1 |
|
Columbia University |
9 | +1 |
|
Northwestern University (Pritzker) |
9 | +1 |
|
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor |
9 | -1 |
|
Vanderbilt University |
12 | +2 |
|
Cornell University |
13 | +5 |
|
University of California-Los Angeles |
13 | -1 |
|
Washington University in St. Louis |
13 | +1 |
Well,
it
finally
happened:
Yale
Law
School
is
no
longer
No.
1
in
the
U.S.
News
law
school
rankings.
Stanford
has
overtaken
Yale
to
become
the
best
law
school
in
the
nation,
with
the
former
leader
falling
to
No.
2
—
in
a
tie
with
Chicago,
no
less!
Yale
has
resided
in
the
No.
1
spot
since
the
inception
of
the
U.S.
News
law
school
rankings,
so
this
change
is
indeed historic.
So,
what
should
everyone
do?
Panic?
Mourn?
Shrug?
If
the
rankings
are
as
meaningless
as
some
claim,
this
shouldn’t
mean
anything,
but
if
it
does
mean
something,
then
welcome
back
to
caring
an
awful
lot
about
a
list
we
all
pretend
not
to
believe
in.
Getting
back
to
the
T14,
Harvard
remains
outside
of
the
Top
5,
Cornell
has
officially
returned
to
the
(bottom
of
the)
top,
and
now
we’ve
got
a
three-way
tie
at
No.
13.
This
time
around,
we’ve
got
15
schools
included
in
the
ranking
of
the
top
14
law
schools
in
the
nation.
Congratulations
to
Vanderbilt
and
Wash
U.
on
staying
among
the
top
schools,
and
a
fond
farewell
to
UC-Berkeley,
Georgetown,
and
UT-Austin.
Let’s
see
how
long
these
law
schools
will
be
able
to
retain
their
places
at
the
tippy
top
of
the
rankings.
Now,
let’s
take
a
gander
at
the
law
schools
outside
of
the
T14.
Like
years
past,
we’re
faced
with
yet
another
rankings
orgy,
with
nothing
but
ties,
ties,
and
more
ties.
There
are
five
ties
in
this
segment
of
the
rankings
alone
(three
ties
and
two
three-way
ties),
with
more
to
follow.
Here
are
the
schools
ranked
16–30:
|
University of California, Berkeley |
16 | -3 |
|
University of Texas-Austin |
16 | -2 |
|
Georgetown University |
18 | -4 |
|
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill |
18 | – |
|
Boston College |
20 | +5 |
|
University of Notre Dame |
20 | – |
|
Texas A&M University |
22 | – |
|
University of Minnesota |
22 | -2 |
|
Boston University |
24 | -2 |
|
Brigham Young University (Clark) |
24 | +4 |
|
George Washington University |
26 | +5 |
|
University of Georgia |
26 | -4 |
|
University of Southern California (Gould) |
26 | – |
|
University of Wisconsin-Madison |
26 | +2 |
|
Ohio State University (Moritz) |
30 | -2 |
|
Wake Forest University |
30 | -4 |
The
biggest
winners
here
were
BC
(up
five
places,
and
into
the
Top
20)
and
BYU
(up
four
places,
and
into
the
Top
25).
The
biggest
loser
here
of
course
was
UC
Berkeley,
which
finds
itself
out
of
the
T14
for
the
first
time
since
the
90s.
Georgetown
has
once
again
been
evicted
from
the
top
law
schools
in
the
country,
while
UT-Austin
was
able
to
enjoy
a
brief
moment
in
the
sun.
Better
luck
next
year.
Now,
for
the
rest
of
the
law
schools
in
the
Top
50,
where
there
are
seven
ties
(noticing
a
trend
within
these
rankings
yet?).
As
you
can
see,
there
was
A
LOT
of
movement
here:
|
George Mason University (Scalia) |
32 | -1 |
|
University of Iowa |
32 | +4 |
|
Baylor University |
34 | +9 |
|
Florida State University |
34 | +4 |
|
University of California-Irvine |
34 | +4 |
|
Washington & Lee University |
34 | +2 |
|
William & Mary Law School |
34 | -3 |
|
Emory University |
40 | -2 |
|
University of Alabama |
40 | +10 |
|
Fordham University |
42 | -4 |
|
Southern Methodist University (Dedman) |
42 | +1 |
|
Arizona State University (O’Connor) |
44 | +1 |
|
University of Utah (Quinney) |
44 | -13 |
|
Pepperdine University (Caruso) |
46 | +9 |
|
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
46 | +2 |
|
University of Kansas |
46 | +4 |
|
Indiana University-Bloomington (Maurer) |
49 | -3 |
|
Temple University (Beasley) |
49 | +1 |
|
Villanova University (Widger) |
49 | -1 |
The
biggest
winners
here
were
Alabama
(+10),
Baylor
(+9),
and
Pepperdine
(+9).
The
biggest
loser
here
was
Utah
(-13).
Whatever
some
of
the
schools
here
are
doing,
they’d
better
shape
up,
because
some
have
almost
been
shipped
out
of
the
Top
50.
The
rest
of
the
rankings
are
available
on
the
next
page.