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#The 2016 U. S. News Law School Rankings Are Here!

/ Mar 10, 2015 at 12:01 AM

The latest U.S. News law school rankings are out. Law school administrators are either cowering in fear or popping bottles of champagne, and law students are getting ready to riot. Law school deans, are you ready to read your report cards and possibly lose your jobs over them?

The U.S. News law school rankings purport to measure the best law schools year-over-year successes (we put best in quotes, because almost every law school in the country receives a numerical rank), but law students and legal employers know that the U.S. News law school rankings measure one thing, and one thing only: PRESTIGE.

The power and allure of that prestige means everything when it comes to obtaining post-graduation employment as a lawyer. If your law school fares well in the rankings, your graduates will likely fare well, or at least better, in the job market. That said, which law schools are the new kings elite of the U.S. News law school rankings?

There was a surprising amount of movement among the top law schools. Here’s the official list of the Top 14 law schools in the nation, as ranked by U.S. News World Report in the year 2015. We ve noted how each school’s ranking differs from its ranking last year.

1. Yale (no change)

2. Harvard (no change)

2. Stanford (+1; ranked #3 last year)

4. Columbia (no change)

4. Chicago (no change)

6. NYU (no change)

7. Penn (no change)

8. Duke (+2; tied at #10 last year with Michigan)

8. UC Berkeley (+1; ranked #9 last year)

8. UVA (no change)

11. Michigan (-1; tied at #10 last year with Duke)

12. Northwestern (no change)

13. Cornell (no change)

14. Georgetown (-1; tied at #13 last year with Cornell)

Talk about a rankings gang bang in the Top 10. Here are a few observations about the T14.

• As we pointed out earlier. Harvard and Stanford are indeed tied for second place. This happens from time to time, and each time, it s categorized as big news. Things like this won t really be big news until either Harvard or Stanford surpasses Yale.
• The “CCN” band Columbia, Chicago, and NYU remains stable, as does Penn at #7. But below that, all hell breaks loose. This is the second year in a row that Duke has moved up in the rankings, and the second year in a row that Michigan has faltered (and now the school isn t even in the Top 10 anymore). Ouch.
• Georgetown slipped a spot, and went back to putting the 14 in T14. Sorry, Hoyas.

What happens outside of the T14? It s a gigantic rankings orgy, with nothing but ties, ties, and more ties. Here s just a taste of what we re talking about. It gets even worse after this.

15. Texas (no change)

16. UCLA (no change)

17. Vanderbilt (-1; tied at #16 last year with UCLA)

18. Washington University in St. Louis (no change)

19. Emory (no change)

20. Minnesota (no change)

20. USC (no change)

22. Alabama (+1; ranked #23 last year)

22. Iowa (+5; ranked #27 last year)

22. Notre Dame (+4; ranked #26 last year)

26. Arizona State (+5; ranked #31 last year)

26. Boston University (+1; tied at #27 last year with Iowa)

28. Washington (-4; tied at #24 last year with William Mary)

29. William Mary (-5; tied at #24 last year with Washington)

30. UC Irvine (first time ranked)

There s a three-way tie for #31, a six-way tie for #34, a four-way tie for #42, a three-way tie for #47, a tie for #50, a four-way tie for #52, a three-way tie for #56, a four-way tie for #59, a four-way tie for #63, a four-way tie for #67, a four-way tie for #71, a three-way tie for #75, a four-way tie for #78, a five-way tie for #82, a seven-way tie for #87, and an eight-way tie for #94. There are 22 rankings ties within the Top 100 alone. UGH!

What the hell is with all of these ties? Perhaps it s because in the 2016 rankings, U.S. News used a new methodology to stop crediting law schools for employing their own graduates. Here s some more information from Bob Morse. proverbial rankings god of U.S. News:

For the 2016 edition of the Best Law Schools rankings, U.S. News has changed its methodology so that law schools receive less credit for employing their own new graduates.

Starting with this year s rankings, law schools with large percentages of graduates who hold jobs funded by the law school or university typically will rank lower than they would have if those jobs had been at law firms or in government.

For new J.D. graduates, being employed by their law school or holding a university-funded job is less desirable than being employed more permanently in a law firm, in government or in a corporation.

This change in the U.S. News methodology means that law schools will have to find a new way to game the rankings. Sorry, career services, but placing recent graduates in long-term jobs that are barely funded by your school is simply not going to cut it anymore. Consider buying some more volumes for your library. Maybe that ll do the trick.

Flip to the next page to see some interesting facts about which schools rose in the rankings and which schools sank like stones (you better believe A LOT of them did), and for some color commentary on the 2016 U.S. News rankings from the one and only Elie Mystal.