Yale's Still #1 in Latest US News Rankings; Harvard, Stanford, Columbia & Chicago Follow
Yale Law School still holds the No. 1 spot in the new U.S. News & World Report rankings this year, followed by Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, Columbia Law School and the University of Chicago Law School in the Nos. 2 through 5 spots, respectively.
New York University takes sixth place in the magazine’s annual rankings of American Bar Association-accredited law schools, followed by the University of California at Berkeley in a tie for seventh with the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan in ninth place and the University of Virginia in 10th.
These top-10 results are much the same as last year: They are identical for the first four law schools, and then the University of Chicago and New York University essentially switch spots, finishing fifth and sixth this year. Berkeley, which last year was in a tie for sixth place with Chicago, drops down a slot to seventh, and Penn edges up slightly from its eighth-place finish last year to tie for seventh with Berkeley.
Meanwhile, Michigan holds steady in ninth place and Virginia, which last year was in a three-way tie for the No. 10 spot, edges out Duke University and Northwestern University. (They tied for 11th place this year.)
Tuition among the top 10 ranges from a low of $35,907 annually for in-state residents at Berkeley to a high of $48,340 at Yale.
Although some information about the latest results of the magazine’s controversial annual law school survey is available for free to the general public online, the full story will be available in the hard-copy magazine that goes on sale on newsstands beginning April 27, according to a press release.
An article in U.S. News & World Report discusses the survey methodology.
It appears from the rankings that earlier news of a possible leak of the U.S. News law school survey results prior to their official release today was, in fact, true: The rankings reported in advance by Above the Law appear to match the official results announced today by the magazine.
“There was some movement within the top-14, but no school fell out of the T14,” Above the Law reported after the official results were released, in an updated version of an earlier post about the leak.
“This seems like a logical time to remind people why the T14 are referenced in that manner,” the ATL post continues. “For as long as most people can remember, the top 14 schools have always been the top 14 schools. Sure, they’ll change their positions relative to each other from year to year. But none of the schools that are in the T14 have been ranked lower than 14th in quite some time.”
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com (April 14): “Have US News Law School Rankings Leaked? Only Magazine Knows for Sure”
True/Slant (Kashmir Hill): “U.S. News & World Report rankings are out (though you wouldn’t know it from their countdown clock)”
