Summary: The latest law school ranking report has been released by the U.S. News & World Report with very few changes from the previous year.
The latest U.S. News & World Report on law school rankings has been released. While there were not many changes in the rankings overall compared to the last few years, there were little changes worth noting.
The rankings were determined by taking 2015 and 2016’s data of things such as peer assessment scores, median LSAT scores, median undergraduate GPAs, employment rates, acceptance rates, library resources, and bar passage rates. The rankings also include information on tuition costs and enrollment numbers.
Looking at the top 50 schools, Harvard has the highest enrollment at 1,767 students whereas Washington and Lee University has the smallest enrollment at 314 students. The most expensive school in the top 50 is Columbia at $62,700 each year with Brigham Young University as the least expensive for LDS members at $11,970.
The number one schools in specialties are ranked as follows: Georgetown for clinical programs, Seattle University for legal writing, Stetson University for trial advocacy, St. Louis University for health care law, Vermont Law School for environmental law, Ohio State University for dispute resolution, Berkeley for intellectual property, and NYU for international law and tax law.
The top three law schools – Yale, Harvard, and Stanford- did not attain a number one ranking in any specialty but are listed in the top ten in at least two specialties.
The top ten law schools according to the ranking are Yale University (No. 1), Harvard University (No. 2), Stanford University (No. 2), Columbia University (No. 4), University of Chicago (No. 4), New York University (No. 6), University of Pennsylvania (No. 7), University of California Berkeley (No. 8), Michigan (No. 8), and University of Virginia (No. 8).
Duke University dropped from the No. 8 spot to No. 11 while Michigan rose from the No. 11 position to the No. 8 spot. Cincinnati improved the most this year by jumping from No. 79 to No. 60. Brooklyn dropped the most, going from No. 78 to No. 97.
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