The New U.S. News Rankings: Harvard Takes A Tumble

Major methodological changes caused some schools to move up or down by dozens of spots.

Harvard Law School (photo by David Lat).

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Yesterday U.S. News published its eagerly anticipated—and highly controversial—law school rankings, aka the 2023-2024 Best Law Schools. As previously mentioned, these rankings were supposed to have been published on April 18, but… well, it’s complicated. Here’s a quick refresher.

Last November, Yale Law School made a noisy withdrawal from the U.S. News rankings, declaring that it would no longer provide U.S. News with certain proprietary data that the magazine needed at the time to prepare its rankings. Dean Heather Gerken decried the rankings as “profoundly flawed,” arguing that their methodology “disincentivize[d] programs that support public-interest careers, champion need-based aid, and welcome working-class students into the profession.”

In the weeks that followed, more than 60 law schools joined the boycott. In response, U.S. News adopted my recommendation that it “change the rankings methodology so it relies entirely on public data, such as data required by [the American Bar Association], or data U.S. News can generate itself, such as reputation scores.”

U.S. News also made other methodological changes, both specific and general, responding to critiques by Dean Gerken and others. For examples of the specific, it changed how it counts school-funded fellowships like those offered by Yale Law to support graduates doing public-interest work, as well as how it counts law graduates who pursue additional graduate study. On a general level, it adjusted the weights of various factors—and even eliminated certain factors, like expenditures per student—to make the rankings focus more on “outputs,” like employment outcomes and bar passage, and less on “inputs,” like the LSAT scores and GPAs of incoming students.

Here’s a summary of the new methodology (by Staci Zaretsky of Above the Law):

• Employment: 33% (up from 14%)

• First-Time Bar Passage: 18% (up from 3%)

• Ultimate Bar Passage: 7% (new)

• Peer Assessment: 12.5% (down from 25%)

• Lawyer/Judge Assessment: 12.5% (down from 15%)

• LSAT/GRE: 5% (down from 11.25%)

• UGPA: 4% (down from 8.75%)

• Acceptance Rate: 1%

• Faculty & Library Resources: 7%

As noted by the New York Times, “fully 58 percent of a school’s ranking is now based on outcomes—how many graduating students pass the bar and get jobs—a substantial increase from prior years.” So what U.S. News basically did is it made its rankings more like… the Above the Law Top 50 law school rankings, which focused on student outcomes from their inception more than 10 years ago.

Moving to a system relying only on public data and data it can generate itself should have made putting together the rankings extremely easy. Alas, according to rankings expert Mike Spivey of Spivey Consulting, U.S. News botched the job:

In theory, [moving to a system basic on public data and its own data] should have made creating the rankings quite simple. Everything that U.S. News needed was here, here, and in their voter responses.

However, being the mess they are, U.S. News managed to screw up what should have been a simple, straightforward exercise. For one, defying all rational explanation, they decided that for some metrics they would use the data submitted by law schools who still participated in their survey; for non-participants, they would input the results from ABA data.

There’s no justification at all for a mixed system. First, you are inviting possible errors from law schools submitting their data to U.S. News. Second, you are giving law schools an opportunity to submit data which is better than what is reported by the ABA—when the data should be the exact same. Third, now you're manually combining data from two different sources, which is just asking for transcription or arithmetic errors.

Which is exactly what happened. There were substantial discrepancies between the data U.S. News had, and the data available through the ABA.

These discrepancies partly explain why U.S. News had to push back the rankings release date by weeks, from April 18 to yesterday. And it appears they also contributed to why the “preview” of the rankings, a listing of the top 14 aka “T14” schools that U.S. News released on April 11, turned out to be wrong. Here’s the corrected list of the T14 schools, with how the schools changed since April 11 indicated parenthetically (again courtesy of Spivey Consulting):

(1) Stanford University (0)
(1) Yale University (0)
(3) University of Chicago (0)
(4) University of Pennsylvania (Carey) (0)
(5) Harvard University (-1)
(5) New York University (+1)
(5) Duke University (+1)
(8) Columbia University (0)
(8) University of Virginia (0)
(10) University of California, Berkeley (0)
(10) Northwestern University (Pritzker) (0)
(10) University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (0)
(13) Cornell University (0)
(14) University of California—Los Angeles (0)

Yes, that’s right: the tie with Penn that had Harvard grads up in arms has been broken—in Penn’s favor. No longer a “T3” school, Harvard is #5—and tied in that spot with NYU and Duke. The horror, the horror!

Here’s the final—or at least final until U.S. News discovers other errors—list of the top 50 schools, with their change from last year noted parenthetically (once again via Spivey Consulting):

(1) Stanford University (+1)
(1) Yale University (0)
(3) University of Chicago (0)
(4) University of Pennsylvania (Carey) (+2)
(5) Harvard University (-1)
(5) New York University (+2)
(5) Duke University (+6)
(8) Columbia University (-4)
(8) University of Virginia (0)
(10) University of California, Berkeley (-1)
(10) Northwestern University (Pritzker) (+3)
(10) University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (0)
(13) Cornell University (-1)
(14) University of California—Los Angeles (+1)
(15) Georgetown University (-1)
(16) University of Southern California (Gould) (+4)
(16) University of Minnesota (+5)
(16) Vanderbilt University (+1)
(16) University of Texas—Austin (+1)
(20) University of Georgia (+9)
(20) Washington University in St. Louis (-4)
(22) University of Florida (Levin) (-1)
(22) University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill (+1)
(22) Wake Forest University (+15)
(22) Ohio State University (Moritz) (+8)
(22) Brigham Young University (Clark) (+1)
(27) University of Notre Dame (-2)
(27) Boston University (-10)
(29) Boston College (+8)
(29) Fordham University (+8)
(29) Texas A&M University (+17)
(32) Arizona State University (O'Connor) (-2)
(32) University of Utah (Quinney) (+5)
(32) George Mason University (Scalia) (-2)
(35) University of Alabama (-10)
(35) George Washington University (-10)
(35) Emory University (-5)
(35) University of Iowa (-7)
(35) University of California—Irvine (+2)
(40) University of Kansas (+27)
(40) Washington and Lee University (-5)
(40) University of Wisconsin—Madison (+3)
(43) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (-8)
(43) Villanova University (Widger) (+13)
(45) Pepperdine University (Caruso) (+7)
(45) Indiana University—Bloomington (Maurer) (-2)
(45) SMU (Dedman) (+13)
(45) William & Mary Law School (-15)
(49) Baylor University (+9)
(49) University of Washington (0)
(51) University of Maryland (Carey) (-4)
(51) University of Oklahoma (+37)
(51) University of Tennessee—Knoxville (+5)

Okay, that’s actually the top 53 schools, with a three-way tie for #51. Some observations:

• Go Duke! Rising six spots, it was the biggest gainer in the T14—no small feat, given the “stickiness” at the the top of the rankings.

• As it has done on a handful of occasions over the years, Georgetown fell out of the T14, replaced by UCLA. Can the Hoyas claw their way back into that illustrious group? Tune in next year.

• In terms of the NYU v. Columbia rivalry, NYU gained the upper hand over its uptown rival: NYU rose from #7 to #5, while Columbia fell from #4 to #8. As for the rivalry between Boston University and Boston College, they’re converging: BU dropped 10 spots and BC rose 8, so now they’re #27 and #29, respectively.

• The new methodology, by placing much greater weight on employment outcomes and bar passage, seemed to favor state schools—which makes sense, since state schools usually have strong in-state employer networks and excel at preparing students for their state’s bar exam. Eight state schools in the top 53 climbed by five or more spots: Minnesota (+5), Georgia (+9), Ohio State (+8), Texas A&M (+17), Utah (+5), Kansas (+27), Oklahoma (+37), and UT Knoxville (+5). Only three state schools in this group dropped by five or more spots: Alabama (-10), Iowa (-7), and Illinois (-8).

The overhaul of the U.S. News methodology led to huge moves for several schools, especially beyond the top 50. Here are the 10 biggest gainers, all schools that moved up by at least 24 spots:

(40) University of Kansas (+27)
(51) University of Oklahoma (+37)
(60) St. John's University (+24)
(60) University of South Carolina (+24)
(60) Florida International University (+38)
(71) Texas Tech University (+34)
(71) Marquette University (+34)
(84) Stetson University (+27)
(89) Duquesne University (Kline) (+40)
(105) Belmont University (+28)

And here are the 10 biggest losers, which moved down by at least 25 spots:

(89) Pennsylvania State University Dickinson Law (-31)
(96) University of St. Thomas (-31)
(122) The Catholic University of America (-28)
(125) Howard University (-27)
(125) University at Buffalo—SUNY (-31)
(135) University of Hawaii—Manoa (Richardson) (-44)
(135) DePaul University (-30)
(146) University of Maine School of Law (-32)
(155) Willamette University College of Law (-26)
(158) Santa Clara University (-25)

Finally, here’s the complete list of all 196 law schools on the U.S. News list, with each school’s rank change compared to last year in parentheses (and with thanks once again to Mike Spivey and his team). What do you notice in the new rankings? Please share your observations in the comments.

(1) Stanford University (+1)
(1) Yale University (0)
(3) University of Chicago (0)
(4) University of Pennsylvania (Carey) (+2)
(5) Harvard University (-1)
(5) New York University (+2)
(5) Duke University (+6)
(8) Columbia University (-4)
(8) University of Virginia (0)
(10) University of California, Berkeley (-1)
(10) Northwestern University (Pritzker) (+3)
(10) University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (0)
(13) Cornell University (-1)
(14) University of California—Los Angeles (+1)
(15) Georgetown University (-1)
(16) University of Southern California (Gould) (+4)
(16) University of Minnesota (+5)
(16) Vanderbilt University (+1)
(16) University of Texas—Austin (+1)
(20) University of Georgia (+9)
(20) Washington University in St. Louis (-4)
(22) University of Florida (Levin) (-1)
(22) University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill (+1)
(22) Wake Forest University (+15)
(22) Ohio State University (Moritz) (+8)
(22) Brigham Young University (Clark) (+1)
(27) University of Notre Dame (-2)
(27) Boston University (-10)
(29) Boston College (+8)
(29) Fordham University (+8)
(29) Texas A&M University (+17)
(32) Arizona State University (O'Connor) (-2)
(32) University of Utah (Quinney) (+5)
(32) George Mason University (Scalia) (-2)
(35) University of Alabama (-10)
(35) George Washington University (-10)
(35) Emory University (-5)
(35) University of Iowa (-7)
(35) University of California—Irvine (+2)
(40) University of Kansas (+27)
(40) Washington and Lee University (-5)
(40) University of Wisconsin—Madison (+3)
(43) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (-8)
(43) Villanova University (Widger) (+13)
(45) Pepperdine University (Caruso) (+7)
(45) Indiana University—Bloomington (Maurer) (-2)
(45) SMU (Dedman) (+13)
(45) William & Mary Law School (-15)
(49) Baylor University (+9)
(49) University of Washington (0)
(51) University of Maryland (Carey) (-4)
(51) University of Oklahoma (+37)
(51) University of Tennessee—Knoxville (+5)
(54) University of Arizona (Rogers) (-9)
(54) Temple University (Beasley) (+9)
(56) University of Colorado—Boulder (-7)
(56) Florida State University (-9)
(56) Wayne State University (+2)
(56) Seton Hall University (+17)
(60) Loyola Marymount University (+7)
(60) University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly known as University of California—Hastings) (-9)
(60) University of California—Davis (-23)
(60) University of Kentucky (Rosenburg) (+7)
(60) St. John's University (+24)
(60) University of South Carolina (+24)
(60) University of Houston Law Center (-2)
(60) University of Richmond (-8)
(60) Florida International University (+38)
(69) Georgia State University (+9)
(69) Yeshiva University (Cardozo) (-17)
(71) University of Connecticut (-7)
(71) University of Miami (+2)
(71) Tulane University (-16)
(71) Northeastern University (+2)
(71) University of Missouri (-4)
(71) Texas Tech University (+34)
(71) Marquette University (+34)
(78) University of San Diego (-14)
(78) University of Oregon (-11)
(80) University of Denver (Sturm) (-2)
(80) Case Western Reserve University (-2)
(80) Drexel University (Kline) (-2)
(80) Pennsylvania State University—University Park (-16)
(84) Stetson University (+27)
(84) Loyola University Chicago (-11)
(84) University of Cincinnati (+4)
(84) Lewis & Clark College (Northwestern) (+4)
(88) Drake University (+23)
(89) American University (Washington) (-16)
(89) Saint Louis University (+9)
(89) University of Nebraska—Lincoln (-11)
(89) Duquesne University (Kline) (+40)
(89) University of Pittsburgh (-11)
(89) University of Nevada—Las Vegas (Boyd) (-22)
(89) Pennsylvania State University Dickinson Law (-31)
(96) University of Montana (Blewett) (+7)
(96) University of New Mexico (-5)
(96) University of St. Thomas (-31)
(99) Mercer University (George) (+23)
(99) Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent (-5)
(99) Indiana University—Indianapolis (McKinney) (-1)
(99) University of Louisville (Brandeis) (-5)
(99) Louisiana State University—Baton Rouge (Hebert) (+6)
(99) Gonzaga University (+17)
(105) University of Arkansas—Fayetteville (-19)
(105) University of New Hampshire (Pierce) (0)
(105) Albany Law School (+17)
(105) Belmont University (+28)
(109) Chapman University (Fowler) (-9)
(109) Rutgers University (-23)
(111) Washburn University (-6)
(111) Loyola University New Orleans (+22)
(111) Michigan State University (-20)
(111) University of Mississippi (0)
(111) Brooklyn Law School (-13)
(111) Cleveland State University (Cleveland-Marshall) (+16)
(111) University of Dayton (+11)
(111) University of Tulsa (+7)
(111) Seattle University (+5)
(111) West Virginia University (+7)
(111) University of Wyoming (+18)
(122) The Catholic University of America (-28)
(122) Syracuse University (-19)
(122) University of South Dakota (Knudson) (+11)
(125) Howard University (-27)
(125) New York Law School (+4)
(125) University at Buffalo—SUNY (-31)
(125) Campbell University (Wiggins) (+≥22) (previously ranked 147-192)
(125) University of Memphis (Humphreys) (+17)
(125) Regent University (+17)
(131) Samford University (Cumberland) (+8)
(131) Pace University (Haub) (+11)
(133) Suffolk University (-11)
(133) Elon University (+≥14) (previously ranked 147-192)
(135) University of Hawaii—Manoa (Richardson) (-44)
(135) DePaul University (-30)
(135) University of Baltimore (-13)
(135) University of Missouri—Kansas City (-21)
(135) Liberty University (+≥12) (previously ranked 147-192)
(140) Hofstra University (Deane) (-22)
(141) University of the Pacific (McGeorge) (-8)
(141) Southwestern Law School (+≥6) (previously ranked 147-192)
(141) University of Idaho (+1)
(141) University of Detroit Mercy (-2)
(141) University of Toledo (+≥6) (previously ranked 147-192)
(146) Quinnipiac University (+≥1) (previously ranked 147-192)
(146) University of Maine School of Law (-32)
(146) Ohio Northern University (Pettit) (+≥1) (previously ranked 147-192)
(149) Northern Kentucky University (Chase) (0) (previously ranked 147-192)
(150) University of Arkansas—Little Rock (Bowen) (previously ranked 147-192)
(150) University of Akron (previously ranked 147-192)
(150) Oklahoma City University (previously ranked 147-192)
(153) St. Mary's University (previously ranked 147-192)
(154) CUNY School of Law (-21)
(155) New England Law Boston (previously ranked 147-192)
(155) Creighton University (-16)
(155) Willamette University College of Law (-26)
(158) Santa Clara University (-25)
(159) Faulkner University (Jones) (previously ranked 147-192)
(159) Widener University—Pennsylvania (Commonwealth) (previously ranked 147-192)
(159) University of Illinois—Chicago (previously ranked 147-192)
(162) Northern Illinois University (previously ranked 147-192)
(162) South Texas College of Law Houston (previously ranked 147-192)
(164) Vermont Law School (-22)
(165) University of San Francisco (previously ranked 147-192)
(165) Mississippi College (previously ranked 147-192)
(167) Touro College (Fuchsberg) (previously unranked)
(167) University of Massachusetts—Dartmouth (previously ranked 147-192)
(167) Mitchell Hamline School of Law (previously ranked 147-192)
(167) University of North Texas—Dallas (previously ranked 147-192)
(171) Nova Southeastern University (Broad) (previously ranked 147-192)
(171) Roger Williams University (previously ranked 147-192)
(171) Atlanta's John Marshall Law School (previously ranked 147-192)
(174) Southern Illinois University—Carbondale (previously ranked 147-192)
(175) California Western School of Law (previously ranked 147-192)
(175) North Carolina Central University (previously ranked 147-192)
(175) Capital University (previously ranked 147-192)
(175) Lincoln Memorial University (Duncan) (previously ranked 147-192)
(175) Widener University—Delaware (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) Appalachian School of Law (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) Ave Maria School of Law (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) Barry University (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) Charleston School of Law (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) Florida A&M University (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) Golden Gate University (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) Inter-American University (previously unranked)
(180-196) Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico (previously unranked)
(180-196) Southern University Law Center (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) St. Thomas University (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) Texas Southern University (Marshall) (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) University of North Dakota (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) University of Puerto Rico (previously unranked)
(180-196) University of the District of Columbia (Clarke) (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) Western Michigan University  (Cooley) (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) Western New England University (previously ranked 147-192)
(180-196) Western State College of Law at Westcliff University (previously ranked 147-192)

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