2014 U.S. News Peer Reputation Rankings (v. Overall Rankings)

Continuing a TaxProf Blog tradition (see links below for 2009-2013), here is the full list of the 194 law schools ranked by academic peer reputation, as well as their overall rank, in the new 2014 U.S. News Law School Rankings (methodology here):

Peer Rank	Peer Score	School	Overall Rank
1	4.8	Yale	1
1	4.8	Harvard	2
1	4.8	Stanford	2
4	4.6	Columbia	4
4	4.6	Chicago	4
6	4.4	NYU	6
6	4.4	Virginia	7
6	4.4	UC-Berkeley	9
6	4.4	Michigan	9
10	4.3	Penn	7
11	4.2	Duke	11
11	4.2	Cornell	13
13	4.1	Northwestern	12
13	4.1	Georgetown	14
13	4.1	Texas	15
16	3.9	UCLA	17
17	3.8	Vanderbilt	15
18	3.6	USC	18
18	3.6	Washington University	19
20	3.5	Minnesota	19
20	3.5	Emory	23
20	3.5	North Carolina	31
23	3.4	George Washington	21
23	3.4	Notre Dame	23
23	3.4	Boston University	29
23	3.4	Wisconsin	33
23	3.4	UC-Davis	38
28	3.3	Indiana-Bloomington	25
28	3.3	Iowa	26
28	3.3	Washington & Lee	26
28	3.3	Boston College	31
32	3.2	William & Mary	33
32	3.2	Ohio State	36
32	3.2	Fordham	38
32	3.2	UC-Hastings	48
36	3.1	University of  Washington	28
36	3.1	Georgia	33
36	3.1	Wake Forest	36
36	3.1	Colorado	44
36	3.1	Florida	46
36	3.1	Illinois	47
42	3.0	Alabama	21
42	3.0	Arizona State	29
42	3.0	Arizona	38
42	3.0	Maryland	41
42	3.0	Tulane	48
42	3.0	American	56
48	2.9	Utah	41
48	2.9	BYU	44
48	2.9	Florida State	48
51	2.8	Connecticut	58
51	2.8	Cardozo	58
51	2.8	Miami	76
51	2.8	Oregon	94
55	2.7	George Mason	41
55	2.7	Temple	56
55	2.7	Denver	64
55	2.7	Case Western	68
55	2.7	Loyola-L.A.	68
55	2.7	San Diego	68
55	2.7	Pittsburgh	91
62	2.6	Houston	48
62	2.6	Pepperdine	61
62	2.6	Tennessee	61
62	2.6	Brooklyn	80
62	2.6	Cincinnati	80
62	2.6	Kansas	86
62	2.6	Santa Clara	96
69	2.5	SMU	48
69	2.5	Georgia State	54
69	2.5	Kentucky	58
69	2.5	New Mexico	64
69	2.5	Chicago-Kent	68
69	2.5	Loyola-Chicago	76
69	2.5	Missouri-Columbia	76
69	2.5	Hawaii	80
69	2.5	Lewis & Clark	80
69	2.5	Rutgers-Newark	86
69	2.5	Indiana-Indianapolis	98
80	2.4	Nebraska	61
80	2.4	Seton Hall	64
80	2.4	Oklahoma	68
80	2.4	UNLV	68
80	2.4	Catholic	80
80	2.4	Northeastern	86
80	2.4	SUNY-Buffalo	86
80	2.4	Rutgers-Camden	91
80	2.4	Marquette	94
80	2.4	Seattle	102
90	2.3	Richmond	53
90	2.3	Baylor	54
90	2.3	Penn State	64
90	2.3	Arkansas-Fayetteville	68
90	2.3	LSU	76
90	2.3	Michigan State	80
90	2.3	Syracuse	96
90	2.3	South Carolina	98
90	2.3	Villanova	98
90	2.3	DePaul	109
90	2.3	Hofstra	113
101	2.2	Louisville	68
101	2.2	St. John's	98
101	2.2	University of Mississippi	102
101	2.2	Missouri-Kansas City	109
101	2.2	Gonzaga	113
101	2.2	Arkansas-Little Rock	113
101	2.2	Howard	126
101	2.2	Maine	134
109	2.1	West Virginia	91
109	2.1	Mercer	105
109	2.1	Wayne State	105
109	2.1	Stetson	109
109	2.1	Wyoming	113
109	2.1	Loyola-New Orleans	126
109	2.1	CUNY	132
109	2.1	Idaho	134
109	2.1	San Francisco	144
118	2.0	Tulsa	86
118	2.0	St. Louis	102
118	2.0	Montana	113
118	2.0	Creighton	119
118	2.0	McGeorge	124
118	2.0	Drexel	126
118	2.0	Albany	132
118	2.0	Quinnipiac	134
118	2.0	Baltimore	134
118	2.0	Suffolk	144
118	2.0	Southwestern
118	2.0	Willamette
130	1.9	Texas Tech	105
130	1.9	Drake	109
130	1.9	Cleveland State	119
130	1.9	Akron	119
130	1.9	New Hampshire	119
130	1.9	Vermont	119
130	1.9	University of St. Thomas	124
130	1.9	Hamline	126
130	1.9	Pace	134
130	1.9	North Dakota	140
130	1.9	Washburn	140
130	1.9	New York Law School
130	1.9	Toledo
143	1.8	Chapman	126
143	1.8	William Mitchell	134
143	1.8	Southern Illinois	140
143	1.8	Duquesne	144
143	1.8	Memphis	144
143	1.8	Dayton
143	1.8	South Dakota
143	1.8	Valparaiso
143	1.8	Widener
152	1.7	Samford	113
152	1.7	Elon
152	1.7	Golden Gate
152	1.7	John Marshall (Chicago)
152	1.7	Northern Illinois
152	1.7	Roger Williams
152	1.7	Texas Wesleyan
159	1.6	Florida International	105
159	1.6	St. Mary's	140
159	1.6	South Texas	144
159	1.6	California-Western
159	1.6	Capital
159	1.6	Mississippi College
159	1.6	New England
159	1.6	Northern Kentucky
159	1.6	Nova
159	1.6	Ohio Northern
159	1.6	Oklahoma City
159	1.6	Touro
171	1.5	North Carolina Central
171	1.5	Texas Southern
171	1.5	W. New England
174	1.4	Campbell	126
174	1.4	John Marshall (Atlanta)
174	1.4	Charleston
174	1.4	Southern
174	1.4	St. Thomas University
174	1.4	Thomas Jefferson
174	1.4	Detroit Mercy
174	1.4	District of Columbia
182	1.3	Appalachian
182	1.3	Faulkner
182	1.3	Florida A&M
182	1.3	Florida Coastal
182	1.3	Whittier
187	1.2	Barry
187	1.2	Charlotte
187	1.2	Liberty
187	1.2	Regent
187	1.2	Thomas Cooley
187	1.2	Western State
193	1.1	Ave Maria
193	1.1	Phoenix

Prior years' rankings:

• 2013 U.S. News Peer Reputation Rankings (v. Overall Rankings)
• 2012 U.S. News Peer Reputation Rankings (v. Overall Rankings)
• 2011 U.S. News Peer Reputation Rankings (v. Overall Rankings)
• 2010 U.S. News Peer Reputation Rankings (v. Overall Rankings)
• 2009 U.S. News Peer Reputation Rankings (v. Overall Rankings)

Bloomberg Law:  New Data "Unmasks" Schools, Says US News Law School Rankings Czar:

Law schools ranked by US News & World Report magazine in the 50 to 150 range were the ones most affected by the availability this year, for the first time, of more detailed graduate employment data from the ABA, according to US News rankings czar Bob Morse.

The new data "unmasked" that some of those schools had a relatively small number of their students taking full-time long-term jobs that require a JD, Morse tells Bloomberg Law's Lee Pacchia.

Many schools on the east and west coasts also saw drops in their rankings as a result of the new data, Morse said. University of San Francisco School of Law had this year's biggest drop, declining 38 places on the rankings, coming in dead last at 144 on the list.

At the top of the list, Yale continued to claim the #1 spot, with Harvard inching up one slot to tie with Stanford at #2.

Turning to last month's controversial National Jurist magazine ranking of schools, which was meant to provide an alternative to US News' list, Morse says "welcome to the world of law school rankings, and the world of being criticized for your methodology."

As for the power of US News' rankings, which some deans blame for legal education's woes, Morse says, "US News isn't the ABA . . . We're not responsible for the cost law school, the state of legal employment, the impact that the recession has had on hiring, or the fact that there are 10 or 20 new law schools that have opened over the past couple of decades. And we're not responsible for the imbalance of jobs to graduates."

 

Update #1:

• ABA Journal, US News Rankings Change With Better Jobs Data; Which Law Schools Are Now Unranked?
• Above the Law, The 2014 U.S. News Law School Rankings
• Above the Law, Brain Drain From Top-50 Law Schools
• Business Insider, Why the New US News Law School Rankings Are Still Deeply Flawed
• Constitutional Daily, The Great Law School Brain Drain
• Mett Leichter, The ‘Law School Rankings’ Are NOT Influential
• Deborah Jones Merritt (Ohio State), US News and Employment Outcomes
• National Law Journal, Major Shakeups in the Middle Ranks of 'U.S. News' Law School List

Update #2:  Chirstopher Zorn (Penn State) compiles the data in scatterplot form.

Update #3:  David Bernstein (George Mason), Comparing U.S. News Faculty Reputation Rank with “Scholarly Impact”:

Below I’ve created a table listing the top fifty-five law schools according to their “peer” ranking on U.S. News, with the last column showing each school’s ranking according to the latest “scholarly impact” study conducted by folks at St. Thomas Law School. Two schools stand out as being wildly underranked by their peers compared to their scholarly impact: George Mason, ranked 55 by peers but 21 by scholarly impact, and Cardozo, ranked 51 by peers and 25 by scholarly impact.  In fact, no other schools ranked as well as Cardozo and George Mason in scholarly impact ranked lower than 23rd in the U.S. News peer rankings.

The most overranked school by these measures is Wisconsin, which is ranked 23 by peers but is not in the top 55 by scholarly impact.  (St. Thomas, by the way, is well out of the top 55 by peer ranking, but is number 31 in scholarly impact.)