Law Schools

The OFFICIAL 2020 U.S. News Law School Rankings Are Here

Did Rutgers and the Penn State schools get ranked? And just how screwed are law grads with high debt and low job prospects?

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Above the Law leaked the latest edition of the U.S. News law school rankings last week, but now the actual publication date is upon us, and the 2020 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 the Penn State schools and Rutgers, all three of which were curiously absent from the leaked data; we know their ranks, and will get to them in a moment).

Without further ado, here are the official rankings for Penn State and Rutgers:

64. Penn State University–University Park (+10)
71. Penn State University–Carlisle (Dickinson) (-12)
77. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (-3)

Oof, Penn State, that’s quite the correction from last year. Looks like Dickinson got benched while University Park continued to rise.

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:

44. University of Washington (-12)
71. Penn State University–Carlisle (Dickinson) (-12)
83. University of Cincinnati (-18)
100. Louisiana State University–Baton Rouge (Hebert) (-12)
126. University of Maine (-20)
126. Cleveland State University (Cleveland-Marshall) (-13)
132. Washburn University (-13)
138. Mercer University (George) (-10)
138. University of South Dakota (-10)

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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!

31. University of Florida (Levin) (+10)
34. University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (+11)
51. Pepperdine University (“unranked” last year; +21 from 2018 rankings)
64. Northeastern University (+10)
64. Penn State University–University Park (+10)
71. Brooklyn Law School (+12)
87. University of Tulsa (+14)
91. University of Hawaii–Manoa (Richardson) (+10)
91. Florida International University (+10)
100. Hofstra University (Deane) (+10)
108. Howard University (+20)
108. Indiana University–Indianapolis (McKinney) (+10)
108. CUNY (+17)
108. University of Missouri–Kansas City (+11)
122. Drake University (+11)
126. University of Toledo (+11)
136. Ohio Northern University (Pettit) (RNP last year)
138. Loyola University New Orleans (RNP last year)

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).

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:

  • Southwestern Law School: $212,576 / 82 percent
  • Thomas Jefferson School of Law: $196,607 / 92 percent
  • University of San Francisco: $174,825 / 81 percent
  • New York University: $167,441 / 59 percent
  • American University (Washington): $167,039 / 82 percent

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The school where graduates have the most debt, Southwestern, has a rank that’s unpublished in the official rankings (see its leaked rank here) and after graduation, 43.5 percent of the class of 2017 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 88.6 percent of the class of 2017 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 Southwestern may 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!

Earlier: The LEAKED 2020 U.S. News Law School Rankings Are Here

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked 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.

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