With today’s release of the 2023 ABA-required 509 disclosures, we don’t just have the full set of law schools’ new medians and class sizes (compiled data with +/- here), but we can also calculate next year’s upcoming U.S. News law school rankings using the current methodology. Because of the rankings boycott, U.S. News now relies primarily on publicly available data from ABA reports. With today's 509 release, 75% of the current methodology's weight is now available, and the remaining 25% comes from the Assessment Scores (which are, in aggregate, very stable—some schools' will change, but overall they will be much the same as last year). That means it's possible to calculate the upcoming rankings under the current methodology with a good deal of accuracy.
All of the above said, please know that these predictions won’t be 100% accurate. For one, there are a few errors in the ABA data that we expect to be corrected by the time the rankings come out (in those instances, we've used last year's data for the schools in question). U.S. News will also almost certainly make some methodology changes (one such possibility would be introducing a faculty citation metric, as they did with the undergraduate rankings), and again, the below calculated rankings are based on the current methodology.
As you'll see below, our predictions show a lot of big changes. That is a consequence of the new methodology. With so much more weight now assigned to the more volatile Outcome metrics (58% compared to 21% two years ago), expect to see big swings going forward.
Importantly, as we have discussed many times in interviews with journalists, in blogs and podcasts (including this one), and across social media, one-size-fits-all rankings tend to be far more harmful than helpful, and applicants should not rely on them when making decisions about where to matriculate. The human mind craves ordinal rankings, because they allow us to drown out extraneous information, but the problem with law school rankings is that you need that extra information—and you need to decide what kind of information matters to you. Who is better at deciding what is most relevant to you: a singular media source, or your personal life experiences and future goals?
While rankings may, at best, serve as a starting point for looking at some schools to apply to, they should never be used in determining where you ultimately desire to go to school. Nor should one- or two-year fluctuations be over-interpreted. Remember that U.S. News (and any rankings outlet) needs change every year, or there would be no interest in their publications. That change is often arbitrary and vastly overstated.
All of this is a long way of saying that rankings are fun, and they can at times serve as a starting point in your law school journey. But as far as actually aligning with your goals and which school(s) are best for you, they are inherently flawed. That's why we caution anyone to use the below list just for interest and entertainment, not for important life decisions of any kind.
– Mike Spivey
| Law School | 2024-2025 Calculated Ranking | 2023-2024 Ranking |
|---|---|---|
| Stanford University | 1 | 1 |
| Yale University | 2 | 1 |
| University of Chicago | 3 | 3 |
| University of Virginia | 4 | 8 |
| Harvard University | 4 | 5 |
| University of Pennsylvania (Carey) | 4 | 4 |
| Duke University | 7 | 5 |
| University of Michigan–Ann Arbor | 8 | 10 |
| Columbia University | 8 | 8 |
| Northwestern University (Pritzker) | 10 | 10 |
| University of California–Berkeley | 10 | 10 |
| New York University | 10 | 5 |
| University of California–Los Angeles | 13 | 14 |
| Washington University in St. Louis | 14 | 20 |
| Georgetown University | 14 | 15 |
| University of Texas–Austin | 16 | 16 |
| Cornell University | 16 | 13 |
| University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill | 18 | 22 |
| University of Minnesota | 18 | 18 |
| University of Notre Dame | 20 | 27 |
| Vanderbilt University | 20 | 16 |
| Boston University | 22 | 27 |
| University of Georgia | 22 | 20 |
| University of Southern California (Gould) | 22 | 16 |
| University of Wisconsin–Madison | 25 | 40 |
| University of Utah (Quinney) | 25 | 32 |
| Wake Forest University | 25 | 22 |
| University of Alabama | 28 | 35 |
| Texas A&M University | 28 | 29 |
| Boston College | 28 | 29 |
| University of Florida (Levin) | 28 | 22 |
| William & Mary Law School | 32 | 45 |
| University of Iowa | 32 | 35 |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | 34 | 43 |
| Washington and Lee University | 34 | 40 |
| George Mason University (Scalia) | 34 | 32 |
| Ohio State University (Moritz) | 34 | 22 |
| Indiana University–Bloomington (Maurer) | 38 | 45 |
| Fordham University | 38 | 29 |
| Brigham Young University (Clark) | 38 | 22 |
| University of Colorado–Boulder | 41 | 56 |
| SMU (Dedman) | 41 | 45 |
| Baylor University | 43 | 49 |
| George Washington University | 43 | 35 |
| Arizona State University (O'Connor) | 43 | 32 |
| Florida State University | 46 | 56 |
| University of California–Irvine | 46 | 35 |
| University of Connecticut | 48 | 71 |
| University of Washington | 48 | 49 |
| Emory University | 48 | 35 |
| University of California–Davis | 51 | 60 |
| Villanova University (Widger) | 51 | 43 |
| Pennsylvania State University Dickinson Law | 53 | 89 |
| University of Missouri | 53 | 71 |
| University of Tennessee–Knoxville | 53 | 51 |
| University of Kansas | 53 | 40 |
| Pennsylvania State University–University Park | 57 | 80 |
| University of San Diego | 57 | 78 |
| Marquette University | 57 | 71 |
| Yeshiva University (Cardozo) | 57 | 69 |
| Temple University (Beasley) | 57 | 54 |
| Pepperdine University (Caruso) | 57 | 45 |
| Northeastern University | 63 | 71 |
| University of Kentucky (Rosenberg) | 63 | 60 |
| Wayne State University | 63 | 56 |
| University of Arizona (Rogers) | 63 | 54 |
| University of Nevada–Las Vegas (Boyd) | 67 | 89 |
| University of Cincinnati | 67 | 84 |
| Loyola Marymount University | 67 | 60 |
| University of Richmond | 67 | 60 |
| University of Oklahoma | 67 | 51 |
| University of Maryland (Carey) | 67 | 51 |
| University of Nebraska–Lincoln | 73 | 89 |
| University of South Carolina | 73 | 60 |
| Seton Hall University | 73 | 56 |
| The Catholic University of America | 76 | 122 |
| Loyola University Chicago | 76 | 84 |
| Drexel University (Kline) | 76 | 80 |
| Tulane University | 76 | 71 |
| Drake University | 80 | 88 |
| Georgia State University | 80 | 69 |
| St. John's University | 80 | 60 |
| University of Houston Law Center | 80 | 60 |
| University of Pittsburgh | 84 | 89 |
| University of California–San Francisco | 84 | 60 |
| Florida International University | 84 | 60 |
| University of Maine School of Law | 87 | 146 |
| Louisiana State University–Baton Rouge (Hebert) | 87 | 99 |
| University of New Mexico | 87 | 96 |
| Lewis & Clark College (Northwestern) | 87 | 84 |
| University of Denver (Sturm) | 87 | 80 |
| University of Oregon | 87 | 78 |
| University of Missouri–Kansas City | 93 | 135 |
| Samford University (Cumberland) | 93 | 131 |
| University of New Hampshire (Pierce) | 93 | 105 |
| Belmont University | 93 | 105 |
| Case Western Reserve University | 93 | 80 |
| Texas Tech University | 93 | 71 |
| Regent University | 99 | 125 |
| University of Dayton | 99 | 111 |
| Cleveland State University (Cleveland-Marshall) | 99 | 111 |
| Rutgers University | 99 | 109 |
| Indiana University–Indianapolis (McKinney) | 103 | 99 |
| Duquesne University (Kline) | 103 | 89 |
| University of Miami | 103 | 71 |
| University at Buffalo–SUNY | 106 | 125 |
| Michigan State University | 106 | 111 |
| Seattle University | 106 | 111 |
| Chapman University (Fowler) | 106 | 109 |
| Mercer University (George) | 106 | 99 |
| American University (Washington) | 106 | 89 |
| Saint Louis University | 106 | 89 |
| West Virginia University | 113 | 111 |
| Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent | 113 | 99 |
| University of Montana (Blewett) | 113 | 96 |
| Brooklyn Law School | 116 | 111 |
| Stetson University | 116 | 84 |
| University of Hawaii–Manoa (Richardson) | 118 | 135 |
| Suffolk University | 119 | 133 |
| New York Law School | 119 | 125 |
| University of Mississippi | 119 | 111 |
| University of Arkansas–Fayetteville | 119 | 105 |
| Hofstra University (Deane) | 123 | 140 |
| DePaul University | 123 | 135 |
| Syracuse University | 123 | 122 |
| Washburn University | 123 | 111 |
| University of Tulsa | 123 | 111 |
| Albany Law School | 123 | 105 |
| University of St. Thomas | 123 | 96 |
| Willamette University College of Law | 130 | 155 |
| University of Akron | 130 | 150 |
| Howard University | 130 | 125 |
| University of Arkansas–Little Rock (Bowen) | 133 | 150 |
| University of South Dakota (Knudson) | 133 | 122 |
| University of Wyoming | 133 | 111 |
| South Texas College of Law Houston | 136 | 162 |
| University of Detroit Mercy | 136 | 141 |
| Loyola University New Orleans | 136 | 111 |
| St. Mary's University | 139 | 153 |
| Gonzaga University | 139 | 99 |
| Quinnipiac University | 141 | 146 |
| University of Baltimore | 141 | 135 |
| Pace University (Haub) | 141 | 131 |
| Campbell University (Wiggins) | 141 | 125 |
| Ave Maria School of Law | 145 | 180-196 |
| Creighton University | 145 | 155 |
| CUNY School of Law | 145 | 154 |
| Northern Illinois University | 148 | 162 |
| University of Idaho | 148 | 141 |
| University of Memphis (Humphreys) | 150 | 125 |
| Northern Kentucky University (Chase) | 151 | 149 |
| Liberty University | 151 | 135 |
| Vermont Law School | 153 | 164 |
| Santa Clara University | 153 | 158 |
| Southwestern Law School | 153 | 141 |
| University of Toledo | 156 | 141 |
| St. Thomas University | 157 | 180-196 |
| University of North Dakota | 157 | 180-196 |
| Lincoln Memorial University (Duncan) | 157 | 175 |
| University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth | 157 | 167 |
| Mitchell Hamline School of Law | 157 | 167 |
| Oklahoma City University | 157 | 150 |
| Ohio Northern University (Pettit) | 157 | 146 |
| Elon University | 157 | 133 |
| University of Louisville (Brandeis) | 157 | 99 |
| New England Law Boston | 166 | 155 |
| University of Puerto Rico | 167 | 180-196 |
| University of Illinois--Chicago | 167 | 159 |
| Southern Illinois University–Carbondale | 169 | 174 |
| University of San Francisco | 169 | 155 |
| Western New England University | 171 | 180-196 |
| Mississippi College | 171 | 165 |
| University of the Pacific (McGeorge) | 173 | 141 |
| Roger Williams University | 174 | 171 |
| Touro University (Fuchsberg) | 174 | 167 |
| University of North Texas--Dallas | 174 | 167 |
| Capital University | 177 | 175 |
| Widener University–Pennsylvania (Commonwealth) | 177 | 159 |
| Florida A&M University | 179 | 180-196 |
| Charleston School of Law | 179 | 180-196 |
| Appalachian School of Law | 180-196 | 180-196 |
| Atlanta's John Marshall Law School | 180-196 | 171 |
| Barry University | 180-196 | 180-196 |
| California Western School of Law | 180-196 | 175 |
| Faulkner University (Jones) | 180-196 | 159 |
| Golden Gate University | 180-196 | 180-196 |
| Inter-American University | 180-196 | 180-196 |
| North Carolina Central University | 180-196 | 175 |
| Nova Southeastern University (Broad) | 180-196 | 171 |
| Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | 180-196 | 180-196 |
| Southern University Law Center | 180-196 | 180-196 |
| Texas Southern University (Marshall) | 180-196 | 180-196 |
| University of the District of Columbia (Clarke) | 180-196 | 180-196 |
| Western Michigan University (Cooley) | 180-196 | 180-196 |
| Western State College of Law at Westcliff University | 180-196 | 180-196 |
| Widener University–Delaware | 180-196 | 175 |