Notice And Comment: The New U.S. News Law School Rankings

Why did Harvard Law drop out of the top three?

Austin Hall at Harvard Law School (photo by David Lat).

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Last week, U.S. News and World Report released its closely watched 2023 law school rankings, which exert outsized influence over the decisions of future law students and the careers of law deans. And there was more movement in the rankings than usual, perhaps because of methodological changes relating to bar-exam passage rates and library resources.

Here are the top 14 aka “T14” law schools, with their change in rank indicated parenthetically (thanks to Staci Zaretsky of Above the Law for calculating all the changes):

1. Yale University (0)
2. Stanford University (0)
3. University of Chicago (+1)
4. Columbia University (0)
4. Harvard University (-1)
6. University of Pennsylvania (0)
7. New York University (-1)
8. University of Virginia (0)
9. University of California–Berkeley (0)
10. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (0)
11. Duke University (-1)
12. Cornell University (+1)
13. Northwestern University (-1)
14. Georgetown University (+1)

Yes, that’s right: Chicago is now a top-three law school, leapfrogging Harvard, which is now tied with Columbia for fourth. Harvard Law hasn’t been outside the top three since 1990, the very first year of the rankings (when it was #5). What caused the drop? Karen Sloan of Reuters notes that HLS saw small dips in its graduate employment rate and its “peer assessment,” i.e., its reputation among legal academics.

As for what helped Chicago, I suspect that the Rubenstein Scholars Program played a role. The program, funded by billionaire investor David Rubenstein, funds full-tuition scholarships for almost 60 students. These scholarships, based on merit rather than need, each year succeed in causing a certain number of high-LSAT, high-GPA students to turn down Yale, Stanford, or Harvard in favor of Chicago—which helps Chicago’s ranking, since the credentials of the entering class are a factor.¹

Elsewhere in the T14, Yale retained the #1 spot, which it has held since the inception of the rankings more than three decades ago. It’s a reminder that despite all the drama at YLS, the law school continues to go about its mission of educating lawyers (and law professors, lots of law professors).

Stanford Law held steady at #2. NYU Law, a top-six aka “T6” school since 2011, fell to #7. Georgetown Law returned to the T14, after falling outside the elite group last year (when it was #15, behind UCLA at #14).

Here are the top 30 law schools:

15. University of California–Los Angeles (-1)
16. Washington University in St. Louis (0)
17. Boston University (+3)
17. University of Texas–Austin (-1)
17. Vanderbilt University (-1)
20. University of Southern California (-1)
21. University of Florida (0)
21. University of Minnesota (+1)
23. Brigham Young University (+6)
23. University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (+1)
25. George Washington University (+2)
25. University of Alabama (0)
25. University of Notre Dame (-3)
28. University of Iowa (+1)
29. University of Georgia (-2)
30. Arizona State University (-5)
30. Emory University (-1)
30. George Mason University (+11)
30. Ohio State University (+10)
30. William & Mary Law School (+5)

Congratulations to Ohio State and George Mason aka Scalia Law, which broke into the top 30 after posting double-digit jumps in rank. Scalia Law has made a conscious decision to carve out a niche as a conservative/libertarian law school, and it appears to be paying off. (See also its dramatically improved clerkship placement.)

Outside the top 30, the biggest gainer was the University of Montana School of Law, which moved up 31 spots to #103. The U.S. News rankings take into account student indebtedness, which I suspect was a big plus for Montana Law, given its super-low tuition of $8,841 a year for in-state residents (and $31,697 for out-of-state residents, still quite good).²

This is a Notice-and-Comment post, where I encourage readers to share their own opinions on the selected topic (and I’m allowing all readers to comment on this story, not just paid subscribers). To get the conversation going, here are a few questions for discussion (but please don’t feel limited by them):

• Can Yale continue at #1, or will it lose the top spot someday?

• Is Chicago beating Harvard a one-time thing—or will we have to start referring to the “CYS” rather than “HYS” trinity of schools?

• Similarly, is NYU dropping out of the T6 a lasting change, or just a blip?

• Which law schools do you expect to make major moves, either upward or downward in the rankings, in the years ahead?

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1. Such merit-based scholarships are not without controversy, since they often end up going to students from the wealthiest families. In contrast, Yale Law School just announced the launch of the Hurst Horizon Scholarship Program, which will provide around 50 full-tuition scholarships to J.D. students whose family income places them at or below the poverty line. Dean Heather Gerken has expressed the hope that other top law schools will follow YLS in awarding scholarships based on student need, instead of putting money in the hands of some of the students who need it the least.

2. I recently returned from giving a talk at Montana Law, where I received a gracious welcome. Nobody tried to shout me down; to the contrary, the audience of 80-plus students listened attentively and asked smart, thoughtful questions. I thank my hosts for their kind hospitality.