Above the Law leaked the latest edition of the U.S. News law school rankings last week (see the Top 50 here, the Top 100 here, and the full rankings here), but now the actual publication date is upon us, and the 2019 rankings are officially out. We’re very pleased to announce that all of our leaked information has been confirmed (with the exception, of course, of Pepperdine Law, which rose from No. 72 to No. 59 in the rankings and then completely lost its rank due to a “data reporting error”).
As we wonder year after year, “Law school deans, are you ready to read your report cards — and possibly lose your jobs over them?” Thanks to an early distribution of the rankings from U.S. News, as well as our leaked information, law school administrators have had the rankings in hand for more than a week now, and by our calculations, the annual running of the deans has already started.
But which law schools have the most to worry about thanks to this year’s U.S. News rankings? Here are the most offensive drops in rank we noticed — and by “offensive,” we mean 10 or more spots. We’ve highlighted the three biggest rankings (technically four, since there was a tie) drops in bold:
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46. University of Colorado—Boulder (-10)
54. University of Utah (-10)
74. Rutgers The State University of New Jersey (-12)
80. University of Nebraska—Lincoln (-23)
83. St. John’s University (-11)
88. University of Arkansas (-11)
88. University of New Mexico (-11)
95. University of San Diego (-18)
98. Indiana University—Indianapolis (McKinney) (-10)
101. University of Tulsa (-19)
106. West Virginia University (-10)
113. University of Louisville (-21)
119. University of Idaho (-10)
133. Drake University (-27)
133. University of Wyoming (-21)
144. University of Akron (-10)
Well, that was entirely depressing. How about some good news? Let’s take a look at law schools that gained 10 or more spots in this year’s U.S. News rankings. We’ve highlighted the three biggest rankings gains in bold. Congratulations on kicking ass!
63. University of Denver (Sturm) (+13)
65. University of Miami (+12)
65. Villanova University (+12)
80. Texas A&M University (+12)
85. University of New Hampshire (+15)
101. Drexel University (+11)
106. University of Maine (+33)
113. Cleveland State University (+14)
113. Santa Clara University (+19)
128. University of South Dakota (+14)
Did anyone else notice that there seem to be more ties in the U.S. News rankings than ever before? We fail to see how this can be helpful to anyone — especially given the fact that so many prospective students are heavily relying upon the rankings to make their law school decisions (a fact of life that the majority of recent law school graduates happen to disagree with quite strongly).
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Enough chatter about numbers, let’s get to the real issues. First and foremost, let’s chat about Pepperdine — or for the 2019 rankings, we might as well refer to the school as “Pepperdone,” since it’s now unranked. Dean Paul Caron said it was “deeply disappointing to be unranked for a year,” but what we think is more disappointing is the fact that Caron is being penalized for his honesty. Yes, per U.S. News Chief Data Strategist Bob Morse, Pepperdine did “complete the data verification process during the data collection for law schools, assuring U.S. News that its information was accurate,” but sometimes errors go unnoticed and must be corrected at a later date.
What’s the lesson to be learned here? Perhaps it’s more preferable to inflate admissions data and only seek to correct it when it’s too late for those students who chose to enroll based on that data to do anything about it, à la the University of Illinois Law School U.S. News scandal from several years back. As University of Chicago law professor and frequent rankings critic Brian Leiter noted on his blog, “No good deed goes unpunished by Bob Morse & Co.” Better luck next year.
Next up, let’s talk debt and employment. These five law schools appear in the top 10 on the U.S. News list of average indebtedness of 2017 graduates who incurred law school debt, and the percentage of 2017 graduates who have debt:
- Thomas Jefferson School of Law: $198,962 / 91 percent
- University of San Francisco: $180,799 / 85 percent
- New York University: $170,955 / 61 percent
- American University: $169,107 / 77 percent
- Georgetown University: $162,739 / 72 percent
The school where graduates have the most debt, Thomas Jefferson, is now unranked and after graduation, only 21.9 percent of the class of 2016 were able to secure full-time, long-term jobs where bar passage required. Compare that with NYU, one of the best law schools in the nation, where after graduation, 88.9 percent of the class of 2016 were able to secure full-time, long-term jobs where bar passage required. Having debt so high to get a law degree ought to be criminal, but at least graduates of NYU will be able to service that debt, and eventually pay it off. Sadly, graduates of schools like Thomas Jefferson will have slim chances of paying off the debt they took on to attain their degrees, and will likely be forced to wear that debt albatross around their necks for the rest of their lives. It’s a very, very unfortunate situation for all involved.
So what do you think of the rankings? Feel free to sound off by email, by text message (646-820-8477), or by tweet (@ATLblog). If you don’t like what you see, you may want to check out the upcoming Above the Law Top 50 Law School Rankings. We care about the most important thing you’ll care about when you graduate — and that’s whether you’ll be able to land a job that pays enough to allow you to service your ever-increasing law school debt. Please stay tuned for their release this spring!
Berkeley Law Returns to the U.S. News’ Top 10, Pepperdine Gets Shut Out [Law.com]
Earlier: Behold, The FULL 2019 U.S. News Law School Rankings Leak (1-144)
The 2019 U.S. News Law School Rankings Leak: The Top 100
The LEAKED 2019 U.S. News Law School Rankings Are Here
Staci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.