Wednesday, April 21, 2010
U.S. News Tax Rankings, 2008-2011
Following up on yesterday's post, New 2011 U.S. News Tax Rankings: here are the overall and graduate tax rankings over the past four years:
Overall Tax Rankings (2008-2011):
Ave.
Rank
Tax
Program
2011
Rank
2010
Rank
2009
Rank
2008
Rank
1.00
NYU
1
1
1
1
2.25
Florida
3
2
2
2
2.50
Georgetown
2
2
3
3
4.00
Northwestern
4
4
4
4
5.75
Miami
5
6
6
6
6.00
Harvard
8
5
6
5
7.00
Boston University
6
6
8
8
7.00
UCLA
11
6
5
6
10.00
Virginia
10
11
9
10
10.75
San Diego
6
11
16
10
12.00
Michigan
16
9
10
13
12.25
Stanford
13
10
13
13
12.50
Texas
18
13
10
9
13.50
Loyola-L.A.
9
16
13
16
16.50
Columbia
13
13
19
21
17.75
Denver
12
19
19
21
18.00
SMU
14
19
22
17
Yale
19
10
10
U. Washington
19
15
18
Chicago
21
15
17
Penn
17
19
18
USC
16
22
21
Villanova
21
22
18
Duke
18
15
Boston College
18
23
Chapman
17
UC-Hastings
18
G. Washington
23
Graduate Tax Rankings (2008-2011):
Ave.
Rank
Grad Tax
Program
2011
Rank
2010
Rank
2009
Rank
2008
Rank
1.00
NYU
1
1
1
1
2.25
Florida
3
2
2
2
2.50
Georgetown
2
2
3
3
4.00
Northwestern
4
4
4
4
5.00
Miami
5
5
5
5
5.75
Boston University
6
5
6
6
7.25
San Diego
6
7
9
7
7.75
Loyola-L.A.
8
8
7
8
10.00
SMU
10
10
11
9
10.25
Denver
9
10
10
12
U. Washington
10
8
10
Villanova
11
11
10
Chapman
9
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2010/04/us-news-.html
To some extent, the rankings seem to fluctuate based on whether the professors asked to fill out the rankings think they are being asked to rank the top tax LLM programs (under the belief that a "program" can't exist or is not as good without a tax LLM degree and all of the extra course offerings and events) or whether they believe they are being asked to rank the top tax JD programs (under the belief that the LLM is not particularly relevant in that it provides very few extra adjunct offerings truly accessible to JD students, it often has the same or fewer events than top JD programs with tax colloquia and well-connected tax faculty, and that the LLM could be counterproductive for JD students vying for the attention of their professors with LLM students). Since the instructions haven't changed, it is likely a function of a presumably random change in the composition of the pool of people asked to rank the schools. It would be helpful if USNWR clarified this, since it seems people are trying to rank apples and oranges together.
For example, Miami, Villanova, Denver, SMU, Loyola (LA), San Diego, and USC (which announced it was doing an LLM, but then deferred the launch date at least a year, if not permanently) all improved this year and Harvard, UCLA, Michigan, Stanford, Texas, Penn, Chicago, and Yale (none of which have general tax LLM programs, although Harvard and Michigan have Int'l Tax LLMs and UCLA's general LLM allows students to concentrate in tax) all dropped. Some on both lists had faculty defections or additions, but most didn't change their faculty (or, presumably, their course offerings) at all.
Washington and Chapman are the only LLM schools to do worse. BC and GW were the only non-LLM schools to improve significantly, with Virginia improving by one spot too. All those schools, except Virginia, though, were near the bottom of the list and are likely influenced by just a few voters.
Posted by: Anon | Apr 21, 2010 9:36:37 AM