Earlier today, U.S. News released their rankings to law school administrations under an embargo. Multiple law schools passed those rankings along to us, however, and we feel, for multiple reasons, that it makes sense to publish them. Among those reasons is the fact that just last year, U.S. News published their top 14 in advance of the full rankings release, and those top 14 turned out to include errors. This year, over 50 law schools opted not to participate in U.S. News' survey, and given that fact plus the immense scrutiny on the rankings and their trustworthiness, we think it's worthwhile for everyone to be aware of this initially-released top 25. If the public release next week is different from the below, it is our view that law schools, students, and applicants should be aware of that.
We'll publish the full list with +/-, plus commentary and analysis on the methodology and what changes they made in their calculations, next week.
U.S. News Top 25 Law Schools 2024 (with +/- vs. last year)
| Law School | 2024 Ranking | +/- from 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Stanford University | 1 | - |
| Yale University | 1 | - |
| University of Chicago | 3 | - |
| Duke University | 4 | +1 |
| Harvard University | 4 | +1 |
| University of Pennsylvania | 4 | - |
| University of Virginia | 4 | +4 |
| Columbia University | 8 | - |
| New York University | 9 | -4 |
| Northwestern University | 9 | +1 |
| University of Michigan | 9 | +1 |
| University of California–Berkeley | 12 | -2 |
| University of California–Los Angeles | 13 | +1 |
| Cornell University | 14 | -1 |
| Georgetown University | 14 | +1 |
| University of Minnesota | 16 | - |
| University of Texas–Austin | 16 | - |
| Washington University in St. Louis | 16 | +4 |
| Vanderbilt University | 19 | -3 |
| University of Georgia | 20 | - |
| University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill | 20 | +2 |
| University of Notre Dame | 20 | +7 |
| University of Southern California | 20 | -4 |
| Boston University | 24 | +3 |
| Wake Forest University | 25 | -3 |
For now, as always, we want to disclaim that it is our strong opinion that rankings should not be a significant factor in where you decide to attend law school—and you should never put much stock in year-to-year changes.