Last week we brought you a rumored list of the latest U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. Now, the official rankings have been released, and guess what? The leaked version was correct. (Congrats to Spivey Consulting, which once again got the rankings before the official publication date.)
So, for those of you who might have missed the reveal, the big news is at the top of the list. The ties that plagued the top of the list last year (at #2 and #4) have been broken, and the Ivy League (Harvard and Columbia) have slipped down a notch. But the really major news (at least for the world of law school nerds) is that Georgetown has fallen from the vaunted Top 14. Never has so small a drop resonated so loudly.
1) Yale
2) Stanford
3) Harvard (-1)
4) U Chicago
5) Columbia (-1)
6) NYU
7) Penn
8) Michigan
8) UVA
10) Duke (+1)
10) Northwestern (+2)
12) Berkeley (-4)
13) Cornell
14) UT Austin (+1)
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Congratulations are in order for Texas, which has spent years on the outside looking in. Welcome to the big leagues.
But… I mean, really? Is Georgetown’s drop from the number 14 law school in the country to the number 15 school in the country really significant? There isn’t much of a quality differential there, and at least top 15 has the benefit of being a round number. But no, the powers that be long ago decided the stagnation at the top of the list (this is the first time a school has fallen out of the top 14) was a virtue, and so, this change registers as a big one.
UPDATE (3/15/2017, 1:00 p.m.): Exactly how big a deal? Above the Law editors Elie Mystal and Joe Patrice debate the importance of the “T14” concept.
Here’s the rest of the Top 30 (see, 30 is a nice round number):
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15) Georgetown (-1)
15) UCLA (+2)
17) Vanderbilt (-1)
18) WUSTL
19) USC
20) Iowa
20) Notre Dame (+2)
22) Emory
23) Boston U (-3)
23) U Minnesota (-1)
25) Arizona State
26) Boston College (+4)
26) Alabama (+2)
28) UC Irvine
28) Washington and Lee (+12)
30) GWU (-5)
30) Indiana U Bloomington (-5)
30) Ohio State
30) U Georgia (+3)
30) U Washington (+3)
30) U Wisconsin Madison (+3)
If you want to see the rest of the ranking, click through to the next page.
Best Law Schools [U.S. News & World Report]
Earlier: Leaked: Are These The 2018 U.S. News Law School Rankings?