Earlier this week, we announced the release of our 2026 ATL Top 50 Rankings. These rankings are based on a weighted formula that includes multiple factors but prioritizes results for graduates (e.g., bar passage, actual lawyer jobs).
This year, the University of Chicago earned the highest overall score. But that doesn’t mean it necessarily had the highest score in each of the individual categories that make up our formula. (In fact, some schools that had the best results in one category do not appear near the top of the ATL ranking because their results in other areas brought down their overall score.)
Here is a look at the schools with the top scores in the specific areas that factor into the ATL Top 50:
Full-time legal employment: Cornell
99% of students who graduated in 2025 obtained full-time long-term jobs requiring bar passage
Biglaw jobs: Columbia
80% of employed 2025 graduates were hired by large law firms
Federal clerkships: Yale
25% of employed 2025 graduates obtained clerkships with federal judges
Quality jobs (Biglaw jobs + federal clerkships): University of Chicago
88% of employed 2025 graduates landed either a Biglaw job or a federal clerkship
First-time bar passage: Stanford
99% of graduates passed the bar exam on their first try in 2025
Projected cost (highest): Stanford
$406,868 = what students enrolling at Stanford in 2026 might expect to pay over the next three years
Projected cost (lowest): University of Puerto Rico
$108,696 = what students enrolling at the University of Puerto Rico in 2026 might expect to pay
Sitting federal judges: Harvard
9% of sitting federal judges with JDs are Harvard grads
Supreme Court clerks: Yale
29% of clerks serving SCOTUS justices since 2021 went to Yale