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Open Thread: 2010 U.S. News Law School Rankings (1-5)

Thursday, April 23, 2009 12:40 PM - By Kashmir Hill & Elie Mystal

US News logo.JPGNow that the new U.S. News rankings are out, we want to bring the strength of the full Above the Law community to bear on the discussion of the best law schools.

Every year, people warn prospective students against making decisions based solely on the rankings. To help students gather as much information as possible in case they do want to think about bucking the list and choosing a lower-ranked school, we’ll be posting a series of open threads around closely-ranked schools.

We hope the threads will help prospective students think about information that cannot be easily codified by sortable data, and will allow alumni to share the hard-earned & intimate knowledge of their schools that doesn’t come in brochures. For example, it’s rumored that students at this year’s #1 school have a tendency not to wipe the toilet seat.

Let’s start at the proverbial top. According to the rankings, the top five law schools in the nation are:

1. Yale
2. Harvard
3. Stanford
4. Columbia
5. NYU

We know we have readers that got into a number of these schools. Said readers, we invite you to share enlightenment in the comments about how you decided on which school to grace with your presence.

After the jump, we pull together some other things about the top five.

As one commenter said yesterday:

Go HLS! That “tie” was insulting.

There are a lot of Harvard Law students who were annoyed at being tied with Stanford last year. That probably tells you all you need to know about Harvard Law students.

Brain Leiter points out that the academic reputation of Yale and Harvard was identical, just 0.1 points ahead of Stanford.

What does 0.1 mean for your law school experience? One commenter felt this way:

The rankings should eliminate entirely opinions of academics. Who gives a s*** what another school’s professors think of your school? You want a job, so lawyers and judges are the only people whose opinions matter. Even business peoples’ opinions, or hell law students’ opinions matter more than do-nothing worthless academics.

It seems that this particular commenter is not a man of letters. There’s lots of dissent over how the rankings should be compiled. This led to the inclusion of part-time programs in the data set this year. We’re always happy to hear (and post) new criticisms.

We’re waiting for National Geographic to make another Eternal Enemies show, replacing lions and hyenas with Columbia and NYU students. Once again, Columbia came out on top in the official rankings. But, as Top-Law-Schools points out:

Perhaps more so than any other elite law school in the nation, NYU students can put forth a strong argument that their quality of life during law school is unmatched.

Frankly, have you ever met an NYU student who was unhappy with their choice? As every New Yorker knows, beyond visiting law firms in midtown, there’s no reason to ever travel north of 14th Street. While NYU kids enjoy the splendors of the Village, Columbia kids enjoy the splendors of Harlem Morningside Heights…

At least Columbia students have bragging rights, and perhaps about more than just their ranking. AmLaw reports that 140 of NYU’s 500 3Ls are looking at yearlong deferrals from their prospective Biglaw jobs. An unknown number have been deferred until at least January. Do you think Columbia students are doing any better?

What information do people need to know about the top five schools that are not included in the U.S. News law school rankings?

An Open Letter to Bob Morse of U.S. News [Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports]
NYU Latest to Help Deferred Students, Furloughed Alums [AmLaw Daily}

Earlier: U.S. News 2010 Law School Rankings

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