U.S. News Releases Preview Of 2024 Law School Rankings: Top 14 And New Methodology

Update: 

• Will U.S. News Refuse To Count Votes From Deans, Faculty, Lawyers, And Judges From Boycotting Law Schools In Reputation Metric In 2024 Rankings? (Apr. 12, 2023)
• U.S. News Delays Release Of Law School Rankings By One Week Due To 'Unprecedented Number Of Inquiries From Schools.' Is Bar Data To Blame? (Apr. 14, 2023)
• The U.S. News Law School Rankings: Say Hello To The New T14 (Apr. 15, 2023)
• What Is Behind The Delay In Releasing The U.S. News Law School Rankings? (Apr. 18, 2023)
• U.S. News Delays Release Of Law School Rankings Again Due To 'Unprecedented Number Of Inquiries,' Including From Schools That Are Ostensibly Boycotting The Rankings (Apr. 19, 2023)
• U.S. News Indefinitely Postpones Law And Medical School Rankings Amid Backlash (Apr. 21, 2023)
• NY Times: Rankings Schadenfreude — Elite Law Schools Boycotted U.S. News But Now May Be Paying A Price (Apr. 22, 2023)

Robert Morse (Chief Data Strategist U.S. News), Focusing on Outcomes for Students: A Preview of the 2023-2024 U.S. News Best Law School Rankings:

2024 Rank	2023 Rank	School
1	2	Stanford
1	1	Yale
3	3	Chicago
4	4	Harvard
4	6	Penn
6	11	Duke
6	7	NYU
8	4	Columbia
8	8	Virginia
10	10	Michigan
10	13	Northwestern
10	9	UC-Berkeley
13	12	Cornell
14	15	UCLA

As education costs continue to soar, students and their families are increasingly focused on the student experience, career opportunities and tangible outcomes that a law school education can offer. To meet this demand, the 2023-2024 U.S. News Best Law Schools methodology prioritizes measures that identify clear and transparent outcomes for prospective students. These changes reflect the insights and input of more than 100 law school deans as well as other experts in the legal field across the country. As always, U.S. News rankings, data, and journalism provide students with the information they need to make the most informed decisions.

The 2023-2024 Best Law Schools methodology includes:

• A significant increase in the weight of the bar passage rate, and the inclusion of “Ultimate Bar Passage,” a two-year measurement of a graduating class's bar exam success
• A significant increase in weight of employment 10 months after graduation
• Full credit for all full-time, long-term fellowships -- includes those that are school funded -- where bar passage is required or where the JD degree is an advantage
• Maximum credit for those enrolled in graduate studies in the ABA employment outcomes grid
• A significant reduction in overall weights of reputation surveys
  
  • Peer assessment and industry assessment are given equal weight to ensure opinions of academics were not weighted higher than opinions of practicing lawyers and judges
• A reduction in median LSAT/GRE and median GPA scores

Earlier this year, some law schools chose not to provide their institution’s statistical data to U.S. News. In an effort to provide students with a level playing field for comparison, U.S. News ranked law schools using metrics that are mandatory for disclosure by the American Bar Association. This means that certain factors such as expenditures, at-graduation employment rate and JD graduate indebtedness are no longer included in the formula.

Wall Street Journal, Yale Law Still No. 1 on U.S. News & World Report’s Rankings Despite Leading Revolt:

Yale Law School held on to the top spot in this year’s U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, despite leading a revolt last fall against the well-known list. ...

Yale Law Dean Heather Gerken called the rankings “profoundly flawed” in November, saying they provided perverse incentives for schools to award financial aid based on test scores rather than on financial need and discouraged schools from having graduates pursue public-interest jobs. At the time, she said, “Its approach not only fails to advance the legal profession, but stands squarely in the way of progress.”

Columbia Law School, which had been ranked at No. 4 last year, slid to the No. 8 spot, while Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law rose to No. 10 from No. 13 and Duke jumped to No. 6 from No. 11. The University of California, Los Angeles, moved up one spot to break into the top 14, while Georgetown University Law Center, whose dean has been a particularly vocal critic of the rankings, fell out of that top-tier grouping. ...

Ms. Gerken said Tuesday that Yale Law never paid attention to the rankings, and what she’s learned about them over the past year “has only cemented our decision to walk away.” 

New York Times, U.S. News Releases New Rankings for Top Law and Medical Schools, Despite a Boycott:

After more than a dozen elite schools decided not to participate, the publication tweaked its methodology. And the ratings looked … not that different.

• ABA Journal, Yale Law Keeps Top Place in US News Rankings Preview—But It Is Tied With Another School
• Forbes, Despite Boycott, Yale Still Tops U.S. News Best Law School Rankings
• Law.com, After Tumultuous Five Months, US News Releases Preliminary Rankings for T14 Law Schools
• Legal Intelligencer, Penn Carey Law School Jumps Two Spots in US News's First Preliminary T14 Rankings Since Boycotts
• The Recorder, Berkeley Law Tangled in 3-Way Tie in Preliminary US News Rankings for T14 Schools
• Reuters, Overhauled US News & World Report Rankings Leave Top Law Schools Largely Unchanged
• Washington Post, Amid Rankings Revolt, U.S. News Teases New List of Law, Medical Schools