The 2025 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings have finally arrived — complete with their fair share of drama and absurdity. Stay tuned for some extra shenanigans, because U.S. News has TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT RANKINGS listed in TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PLACES.
Please note the UPDATES below. Click here to see the official ranking.
Here’s the list — maybe, but who knows? — of the top law schools in the nation, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report in the year 2025. The ranking discussed below comes from the U.S. News Best Law Schools site (as originally published circa 9:00 p.m. EST). A separate version of the 2025 U.S. News law school ranking can be found here (which also curiously carries a 9:00 p.m. EST publication time).
Which one is correct? Your guess is as good as ours!
That said, take a look at the prestigious T14, where there were some interesting moves:
| Stanford University | 1 | – |
| Yale University | 1 | – |
| University of Chicago | 3 | – |
| University of Virginia | 4 | – |
| University of Pennsylvania | 5 | +1 |
| Duke University | 6 | -2 |
| Harvard University | 6 | -2 |
| New York University | 8 | +1 |
| University of Michigan | 8 (but also 9?) | +1/- |
| Columbia University | 10 | -2 |
| University of California-Berkeley | 12 | – |
| University of California–Los Angeles | 13 | – |
| Cornell University | 14 | – |
| Georgetown University | 14 | – |
Yale remains tied for the No. 1 spot with Stanford. We suppose U.S. News couldn’t be too controversial. This still represents a major shake-up within the T14, with UVA remaining as the only school at No. 4, while Penn, Duke, and Harvard, each fell down a spot or two. Woe is Harvard, now tied at No. 6! NYU is up, while Columbia is down, and Michigan somehow claims not one, but two spots in the Top 14. U.S. News may not have caught that error, but we sure did. And thanks to that error, Northwestern is completely missing from the rankings. Last but not least, the T in T14 now stands for tie, because there’s a tie between Cornell and Georgetown at the bottom of the top.
UPDATE: The screenshots below were taken at about 9:00 p.m. EST, reflecting what was published on U.S. News at that time. The official version of the ranking is now online, and is available here.
But wait, again, there is a SEPARATE version of the T14 that can be found on another U.S. News website. That version is WILDLY different from the one discussed above. Here it is:
- 1 (tie). Stanford University
- 1 (tie). Yale University
- 3. University of Chicago
- 4. University of Virginia
- 5. University of Pennsylvania (Carey)
- 6 (tie). Duke University
- 6 (tie). Harvard University
- 8 (tie). New York University
- 8 (tie). University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
- 10 (tie). Columbia University
- 10 (tie). Northwestern University (Pritzker)
- 12. University of California—Los Angeles
- 13. University of California, Berkeley
- 14 (tie). Georgetown University
- 14 (tie). University of Texas—Austin
- 14 (tie). Vanderbilt University
- 14 (tie). Washington University in St. Louis
Four schools tied at 14? Come on. And in this version, we find Cornell all the way down at #18. Surely you jest, U.S. News.
This is like a choose your own adventure version of the rankings that so many law students rely upon. This is completely embarrassing.
UPDATE (10:45 p.m.): U.S. News has now merged the secondary ranking, which lists four schools as No. 14, into the original erroneous ranking that it published at about 9:00 p.m. EST. We suppose that’s the real ranking. How… exciting? Yay! Big congrats to the 17 law schools that are now members of the T14! It just goes to show that lawyers really aren’t very good at math.
So what do you think of this mess? 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 (on either version of the U.S. News law school rankings), 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!
2025 Best Law Schools [U.S. News]
Discover the 2025 Best Law Schools [U.S. News]
Staci 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 Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.