Projected 2025-26 U.S. News Law School Rankings: The Biggest Winners And Losers

Derek Muller (Notre Dame; Google Scholar), Projecting the 2025-2026 USNWR Law School Rankings (To Be Released March 2025 Or So): 

Fifty-eight percent of the new USNWR law school rankings turn on three highly-volatile categories: employment 10 months after graduation[33%], first-time bar passage [18%], and ultimate bar passage [7%]. USNWR has tried to smooth these out by using a two-year average of these scores. (Next year, it might well use a three-year average or three-year weighted average.)

Because USNWR releases its rankings in the spring, at the same time the ABA releases new data on these categories, the USNWR law school rankings are always a year behind. This year’s data include the ultimate bar passage rate for the Classes of 2019 and 2020, the first-time bar passage rate for the Classes of 2021 and 2022, and the employment outcomes of the Classes of 2021 and 2022.

Derek projects the Top 100 schools in next year's 2025-26 rankings. Here are the largest projected increases among those schools:

Rank	School	Projected 2025-26 Rank	Current  2024-25 Rank	Difference
1	Maine	84	120	+36
2	Pittsburgh	65	91	+26
3	Catholic	71	94	+23
4	Penn State-Dickinson	58	75	+17
5	San Diego	56	68	+12
6	Florida State	37	48	+11
6	Louisiana State	80	91	+11
6	Nebraska	71	82	+11
9	Chapman	98	108	+10
9	Dayton	98	108	+10
9	Penn State-Univ. Park	58	68	+10
9	SUNY-Buffalo	98	108	+10
13	UC-Irvine	33	42	+9

Here are the largest projected decreases among those schools:

Rank	School	Projected 2025-26 Rank	Current 2024-25 Rank	Difference
1	Marquette	86	68	-18
2	Richmond	80	66	-14
3	Lewis & Clark	95	82	-13
3	Oregon	95	82	-13
5	Drake	92	82	-10
5	Seton Hall	71	61	-10
7	Illinois	45	36	-9
7	Wisconsin	45	36	-9
9	Maryland	63	55	-8
9	Wayne State	63	55	-8
11	Arizona State	43	36	-7
11	Fordham	40	33	-7
13	Indiana-Maurer	48	42	-6
13	Kansas	52	46	-6
13	Loyola-Chicago	84	78	-6
13	Miami	88	82	-6
13	Texas Tech	88	82	-6
13	UC-San Francisco	88	82	-6